Hi Everyone,
It's been a few months since I first asked if there was any interest in
going back to Lake Superior for the first weekend of this years
Cumulative. The response was better then expected, with may ops wanting
to attend and a number of others who want to be there but couldn't
commit that far in advance.
There is enough interest so the plan is for us to operate on the lake
during the August weekend this year.
Currently there are 8 ops who plan to operate on the Minnesota North
Shore (the western side of the lake) and a couple more who are
interested. The Michigan side, the Keweenaw peninsula, near Copper
Harbor, has a half dozen who plan to operate and another seven who want
to go. The Canadian end has four ops with another couple as probables.
We operate like this: the MN ops start near Duluth and travel up the
shore on Saturday, making as many stops as there is time for. Sunday we
start at the furthest north site near Grand Portage and then travel back
south using may of the same sites as on Saturday., The Michigan ops use
two different sites, one each day. If the group gets too big then they
split up by bands available, a 10 G only group and a second group who
also have the higher bands. Each group uses one site on Saturday and
then they switch sites on Sunday.
In the past there have been contacts between the MN NS and the UP on 10,
24 and 47 G. The longest distances were 160 km on 47 G and 226 km on 24
G. There have been many contacts on 24 G between the UP, Mt Brockway
site, and the Canadian site in Marathon at a distance of 180 km. I don't
think the UP and Canadian groups have tried 47 G or higher. The longest
path from the MN shore to the UP is 333 km. While the shortest is from
the northern end at 124 km. The shortest path from the MN shore to
Marathon is 256 km and it is not an all over water path. The last time
we were there conditions were great, which isn't unusual on the lake.
The longest contact that the MN ops had was with the Canadian's at 469
km. Conditions were excellent as the signals were S9+++ at that
distance, good lake enhancement. There were short range shots on the
higher bands between the UP group from Brockway down to a site near the
lake shore and on the MN end Sunday evening from sites near Duluth.
This time some of the ops who plan to attend have told me that they have
added higher bands. Some have added 76 G and 122 G. There could be some
ops with light on the UP side too. Another incentive is that there may
be a second site where the high band ops/group could have an open path
from near the lake shore to the Canadians at Marathon. Previously only
the top of Mt Brockway has provided a path for the UP ops to Canada.
So, who is interested in joining the microwaving fun on Lake Superior
next August?
If you need more information feel free to contact me.
If you have already responded, please do so again and include the bands
you have available. It's probably also good to know the capabilities of
you system(s), band, power, NF, antenna, etc. I will include that info
in future updates.
Remember that nothing is set in stone. We have had a number of ops who
planned to attend but couldn't when life got in the way. So we will
understand if that happens to anyone.
73, Gary WBØLJC
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