[SCCC] 10 GHz and Up

[Drew Arnett]

Went out to portable location and found that in my last minute
packing, forgot the adapter I needed.  Will go back out tomorrow.  So
submitted my score for the ARRL 10 & Up instead.

In the 10 and Up, I worked 21 unique callsigns.  Roved 4 SD county
hilltops both weekends for 5 unique hilltops over the event.  Best DX
268 km.  Still running 3 to 5 milliwatts with less than ideal feed
antenna and receiver with a noise figure of at least 11 dB.  Swapping
the feed and adding LNA & PA will make this a very capable setup.
However, running this way is very similar to HF QRP.  Yes, it is more
challenging, but there are plenty of contacts to be made.  (Yes, work
is planned to upgrade.)  And like HF QRP, working with propagation is
helpful.

I tallied the score at 7097, but the ARRL tallied it up at 7179.  Not
worried about it enough to double check my work.

On the second weekend, a new ham was using a SDMG loaner rig.  After
making the first phone contact of the day, he turned to us and told us
that was his first QSO.  Ever.  :-)  His phone contesting skills were
well honed by the end of that day with the necessary repeats and also
due to having KN in both his callsign prefix and suffix!

Best regards,

Drew
n7da