[3830] ARRL 10G+ K0SM 10G Plus
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Tue Sep 20 08:01:58 EDT 2022
ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest - 2022
Call: K0SM
Operator(s): K0SM
Station: K0SM
Class: 10G Plus HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band Number of Calls Tot Dist(km)
-------------------------------------
10G: 45 28958
24G: 7 674
47G:
75G:
123G:
134G:
241G:
Light:
-------------------------------------
Total: 52 29632 Total Score = 34,832
Club: Rochester VHF Group
Team:
Comments:
10G: 3W, 2ft dish, tripod.
24G: 2W 1ft dish, tripod.
QSOs by distance:
<50km: 33
50-99km: 7
100-149km: 19
150-199km: 38
200-249km: 9
250-299km: 13
300-349km: 11
350-399km: 7
400-449km: 5
450-499km: 1 (KC0IYT-RS)
500-549km: 4 (Block I. crew, first weekend, RS)
550-599km: 2 (AF1T-ACS, KB8U-RS)
600-649km: 0
650-699km: 1 (W8BYA-RS)
700-749km: 1 (K2YAZ-RS)
Contest: ARRL10GHZ
Band Mode QSOs Pts Unq Pt/Q
10000 CW 137 28958 45 211.4
24000 CW 14 674 7 48.1
Total Both 151 29632 52 196.2
Score: 34,832
This contest had a little of everything...and a lot of some things. I
essentially operated from "one location"--a tripod in my driveway
(FN12eu) and my local perch 3mi up the road for a couple hours on Saturdays in
FN12ev where I have a complementary view to the east. I recently made my tripod
more robust for quick setup and tear-down so I could make some quick trips and
still be able to help out at home if (when) needed.
Aug Day 1:
The morning AM started out working locals and rovers on L. Erie at 300-400km
range on the usual troposcatter that seems to always be there on the August
contest weekend. N8IUP (445) was the longest stretch there, but he was plenty
loud. The duos of W2FU/WA2TMC, VA3ELE/VE3SST, and K2UA/K2DH were workable at
every stop save EN91kt (I'm 1-deg behind a cooling tower there, but we almost
pulled it off anyway.) Some obstructed paths up into VE3 were possible by
pointing into Toronto (about 170km from here). Case in point, VA3MW and I tried
mightily on the direct path from the middle of FN04, and on a whim I suggested
we both peak the VE3GHZ beacon and try again. The beacon was very loud here,
and I thought that the morning radiation inversion was messing with us. It turns
out that super-refraction is the real deal and we worked easily on a 90 degree
bounce off ground clutter in the Toronto area--amounting to about a 250km RF
path. VE3EG responded to CQ on a similar bounce a little while later.
Around 2pm I made a 1-hour trip to FN12ev and worked the Block-Island crew
(531x4) on RS and few others, including W3IP(427). The first of several QSOs
with WB2WGH and the K2TER/K2CS duo were here. The rain was coming into range to
my west so I went back home to work the L. Erie stations, now with VE3RWN
joining the fray. A quick call to K2YAZ(706) netted the longest QSO of the
weekend. After picking up the western stations I went back to FN12ev for
another hour and worked a few more, including KC0IYT in FN42em (492) along with
a few rovers to the east. At this point the rain around L. Erie was getting
pretty dense, but W8BYA (668) and I finally found a dry slot and were able to
work through the mess once I returned to my driveway. The rest of the evening
was uneventful--mostly the "close-in" rovers in the <300km range,
the rain making signals easy to find and easy to copy. The last Q was around
midnight.
Aug Day 2:
Day 2 was part-time for me, but the theme was rain scatter. K2UA/K2DH and
W2FU/WA2TMC were close enough to work on 24, which was the first of twelve 24
GHz QSOs. Later in the afternoon a quick shout to N8IUP(437) netted him in a
new grid. KB8U (571) found a break in the action and he worked me from his home
station off a cell on the north shore of L. Erie. No big DX was worked after
that, but as the rain got closer I was able to backscatter to the east to pick
up some rovers that would otherwise not be workable from my QTH. There were even
a couple FM pileups in the late afternoon. I found K2AXX underneath one of
them. Having repaired his PTT in his backyard the night before, he was now
roving somewhere deep in the taiga of FN02 waiting his dish into the approaching
monsoon. I was very happy to make some 24G rain-scatter QSOs with K2TER (on
his porch) and VA3ELE (130km) across the lake. In fact, all my 24G QSO's were
rain-enhanced. A few QSOS were made shooting out the garage side door in the
middle of a local thunderstorm.
Sept Day 1:
I had to stay close to home for the second weekend or the 10G+ contest, so I
operated from the same place as the first: home in FN12eu to work west and 3
miles up the road in FN12ev to work east.
Saturday was pretty flat--no tropo and the VE3GHZ beacon was in the noise pretty
much the whole weekend. It was more typical of winter conditions, actually.
Many of the rovers that were on Lake Erie the first weekend were other places,
so it was expected that the Q totals and distances would be lower compared to
the somewhat magical August weekend with all the activity and thunderstorms in
the region. That said there were a few highlights included working a quintuplet
of K2UA/K2DH/N2MG/K8ZR/KG6CIH on Equinox for 5x367km and three new calls from
FN12ev. One miracle occurred up on the hill--AF1T made it into the log on very
short-lived aircraft scatter event at 583km. Conditions were blasé, but that
didn't stop the easy QSOs with VE3's across the lake and NG3W slogging it out
down in PA. I worked N2WK on 24G for a new call.
Sept Day 2:
I was able to get on the air Sunday on-an-off starting at a little after 4pm
only from FN12eu (the driveway). I was in time to stop NG3W from packing up in
FN11 and to work VA3ELE/VA3TO in FN24 for back-to-back new grids #31 and #32 on
some regional rain scatter. FN24 was worked on a very bent path pointing at
about 350 degrees and scattering off light rain over Lake Ontario, the direct
path being impossible from my property. Other QSOs were all in the <200km
range across the lake or with locals. At the end of the contest the iron-men
VA3ELE/VA3TO made it into the log from three FN14 sites (160-180km) all on an
obstructed direct path over my neighbor's house and trees. Our last QSO was at
23:20 local--sorry guys, I just couldn't make it to midnight!
Only 39 total QSO's the second weekend compared to 112 the first weekend.
Still, 12 new calls made it into the log, largely thanks to some locals and
VE3's who ventured out. I think the activity the first weekend spurred a few
locals to get QRV the second weekend, which was a wonderful addition. Some got
their first taste of rain-scatter on the band Sunday afternoon. Wait until they
find out what kind of DX big thunderstorms can provide!
Contest summaries for both weekends....I worked 23 total 4-digit grids (17 from
the FN12eu house property alone). VA3ELE was in the log 17 times across both
weekends (16 of those on 10GHz) and is responsible for over 4000 points in my
log. I don't think we missed anything we tried, and some of those looked pretty
sketchy from my point of view behind the dish! A big part doing this contest
with a tripod is finding creative ways of getting the RF to the destination.
We're succeeding on paths I wouldn't have even attempted a few years ago.
Total result is a ~25% increase in score compared to last year.
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