[SCCC] September VHF - N7DA

[Drew Arnett]

I went out a bit on Saturday primarily to work the ops on San
Clemente.  Took a 10 GHz rig and HTs for 2, 222, 440, and 1290.
Worked an op south of me when I was sitting at the north side base of
a mountain with an HT.  San Clemente ops weren't ready yet, so took
lunch.  After lunch, went out to Double Peak Park.  Worked San
Clemente on all bands and including both of the new 10 GHz ops.  (Yes,
they had two rigs.)  Worked a number of other stations, but traffic
was lighter than June as it usually is.

Seeing the CB (thunderstorm) clouds in the distance, I texted N6RMJ to
see if he was up for a rainscatter contact on 10 GHz.  (My mistake
during the September 10 GHz weekend was roving instead of staying put
and capitalizing on the rain scatter. so I owed Pat a QSO.)  The rain
cell was up around Mojave and I could see it, so it was easy to line
up.  SIgnals were loud.  We exchanged on SSB first then switched to FM
where he was full quieting.

My not checking my work score is 624 but the log form said 546.  Not
going to check the work or search out the mistake.  Turned it in for
SCCC as usual.  Sometimes my contributions are small.  :-)

As usual, go out to the park with VHF rigs, or even better a dish, and
folks have to ask.  Had some good ones this time.  A young vet asked
about the radio gear as he used radios but didn't specialize in them
in the service.  A couple of kids around 7 years old asked and I
pointed to the cloud and said I was talking to someone in AZ bouncing
off of the rain drops.  They were old enough to know AZ is long way
away.  "Wow, that is so cool!" ...  It was the most exciting thing
ever for them for just under 10 seconds, then they were off to
exploring rocks and bugs again.  :-)

We had the tropical storm for the September weekend and the marine
layer was extra thick and drizzly (in September???), but the 10 and Up
contest was good.  Lots of operators were on.  And quite a few new
operators both in the SDG and LAX areas.  New ops were doing great.
Was actually hard to try to work everyone, because it was so busy.

Fun stuff.

Drew
n7da