[3830] ARRL 10G+ K2UA 10G Plus

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                    ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest - 2022

Call: K2UA
Operator(s): K2UA
Station: K2UA

Class: 10G Plus HP
QTH: Various
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  Number of Calls  Tot Dist(km)
-------------------------------------
  10G:        61            36833
  24G:        15             2732
  47G:         6              443
  75G:         4              103
 123G:         4                4
 134G:                           
 241G:                           
Light:                           
-------------------------------------
Total:        90            40115  Total Score = 49,115

Club: Rochester VHF Group

Team: 

Comments:

I had an excellent time operating with K2DH the first weekend, starting near
Cleveland on Lake Erie and working our way east. Rain was a challenge on Sunday
but we had some awesome DX from FN02nu, FN02xu, and FN03wa. We operated in three
ARRL divisions between the two weekends.

Learning about ship bounce on 10 and particularly 24 GHz was both exciting and
fascinating! Activity was excellent in spite of the fact that many ops who would
have normally been in range went way up north to do their pack thing.

The second weekend was great fun, with K2DH, N2MG, and K8ZR. Same crew and
nearly a repeat of the 2020 itinerary, with some tweaks. We had all the usual
challenges (time, especially--we always get to Equinox too late and we get
pushed off the mountain at 4:30 PM), plus a late-night repair at the Vermont
hotel, and a spray of MIL lights in the Pilot at 5 AM Saturday. 

On Equinox, the time challenge meant that once again we did not get to the
summit, so we had no shot at VA3ELE and VA3TO. We did very well from the saddle,
especially to the west, working many stations in the 400-550 km range. 

Saturday evening was fun on the Mt Greylock Fitch overlook, but conditions were
poor. Sunday morning Mt Greylock was enveloped in fog for the first few hours we
were there. It cleared some but none of the important long 24 GHz QSOs were
possible and none of the usual suspects were in range for an attempt on 47 and
78 GHz. Our QSO count was half of last year's number (15 versus 30) from FN32kp.
We went back to FN32jp and did well from there, with 15 total QSOs including
some long ones to the west and southwest; conditions were much better than the
night before and yielded four or five contacts over 500 km. On the trip back to
Central and Western New York, to sites we count on for long QSOs to FN41 and
other places, we drove through massive rain storms that came in waves. The rain
and thunder washed us out before we could set up at FN23ea and we ruled out
another stop because of the risks of late-night setup in wet weather.  Instead
we improvised two sites close to each other where we worked five stations on
rain scatter and made our 1 km QSOs with our teammates.

No significant DX in this contest. Conditions didn't allow for anything greater
than 550 km. 

Band breakdown:
Band  QSOs  Calls  Best DX (km)
 10    195     61      574
 24     32     15      150
 47      7      6      140
 76      4      4       76
122      4      4        1
Tot    242     90  Score: 49,115

Score is down from last year in spite of about 15 more QSOs, for an all-time
high for me. Hard to reconcile, especially in light of the growth of so many
other scores.

Some big highlights for me were spending the weekends with great friends on the
microwave bands, learning new things and cracking a lot of grade-A Dad Jokes
together. My best contest DX on 47 GHz (140 km) across Lake Erie with VA3ELE was
fun, and it was great to break in the new 78 GHz system with an 86-km QSO with
WA1MBA from FN32ou to FN42bl. Working 90 band-calls was not just an all-time
high for me, but it beat my previous best of 61 by almost 50%--that was both
welcome and unexpected!

Thanks to all, regulars and newcomers, who made many Qs with me! Some highlights
include AF1T and W1MKY (6 each), K0SM (14), K2TER (9), KB8VAO (7), N2JMH (10),
N2WK (10), VA3ELE (19), VA3TO (6), VE3KH (12), VE3RWN (7), VE3SST (13), W1EX
(5), W2FU (13), WA1MBA (6), WA2TMC (9), and several at 4, 3, and 2. Thank you
all SO much for all the fun QSOs! Already thinking about next year!

--73, Rus, K2UA


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