ARRL 10GHz And Up, Part 2 by Herbert AF4JF

There is not much to add after reading Ron's posting about Part 2 of this year's ARRL 10GHz Contest. Ron  KO0Z spent the day on a hill top in Pere Marquette State Park above the river in Illinois while Harry WA0CNS and Herbert AF4JF drove I-70 west from Saint Louis to EM38 near Kingdom City (the only location outside EM48 that we have visited that day).

First of all, my travel companion Darcey was present. She is a true HAM radio dog. Maybe I should try to tech her CW some day:

How did we get the idea to put someone on the Eagle's Roost and have rest of the team driving the I-70 West as far as we can hear each other? That's simple - our numbers dwindled over the years. By saying that, I mean that there were more HAMs QRV on 10GHz in Saint Louis area just a few years ago. In addition to that, some of our colleagues whom we usually work on microwave bands during contests decided to go the the Great Lakes in the North to participate in the contest from there. We have tried several strategies for such situations before and ended up with this "leap frogging" and driving around concept. See also our other postings on this blog here and here.

Ron's position on a cliff above the river turned out to be excellent, we have made a QSO from every stop. Even better, we extended our trip way further out to the West than originally planned. It wasn't always easy to find a spot to set up without facing either corn field, a building or even a property owner curious about our activities (happened twice, means 20% of our locations). 

Ron's posting shows some of our locations in fast food parking lots, behind restaurants etc. Following picture shows how we set up at a gas station:

There is another picture with me masking as a cellphone company worker behind one of their towers in a church parking lot (note the magnetic ARRL radio communications sign on my car):

Last picture to share today shows the side road next to I-70 in EM38 where we set up. The view is actually towards West (I was taking a picture of my dog, not of the view) but the other direction looked exactly the same. This was the same location we used years ago, described in another posting:

So, that's about it. We have spent a day with our precious hobby, got some sunburn again (believe it or not, there was some sunshine between the rains too) and found some locations to plan with for the contests to come.

73 Herbert

AF4JF

ARRL 10GHz And Up Contest 1st Leg as seen by Herbert, AF4JF

Ron KO0Z published extensive details from our journey (see his posting below), so I will limit mine to basic comments and a few pictures.

First of all, I would like to thank Rich N0PQU for his never ending optimism and energy spent on our 2-day activity in the heat of summer.

We have actually started the journey on Friday 8/18 by testing the path between EM48rq (Saint Louis MO, hill above Chesterfield). Herbert AF4JF and Harry WA0CNS worked Bill K0AWU from there. Bill was in EM39ka at that time, distance 146 miles. Signals were weak when we started (6:00pm) but became stronger with time. I have also noticed that the signals were coming from higher elevation later - aiming the dish 5 degrees up made considerable difference. We have probably seen the "vapor ducting" propagation kicking in with the Sun going down.

After working Bill on 10GHz, Herbert and Harry switched to 24GHz and tested Herbert's repaired transverter across the parking lot. Signals were S9 both ways, so we will test real QSO soon.

We were approached by an employee of the medical facility who own the property we were set up on. No problem, the lady just asked what are we doing there in friendly tone.

Herbert AF4JF and Rich N0PQU went to EM58bv (near Edwardsville, IL) for first day of the contest. Nice location, (almost) abandoned parking lot behind a country restaurant. That was our first mistake - we were planning on using that restaurant for restrooms and refreshments. Too bad that they open at 3:30pm. However, we were approached by the property owner who reminded us that we are on her property, but didn't object much and let us stay there.

(picture taken from a gas station across the road)

We have set up Herbert's 10GHz + 24 GHz and Rich's 10GHz stations around 8:30am and started our long waiting.

As Ron described in his posting, we have made several unsuccessful tries before we finally achieved first contact at 10:48am while Ron was in EM59fh and later at 12:03pm from EM59ji. One more contact with Zack W9SZ from EM59ji at 02:36pm was all we were able to do. Only 48 miles QSOs after all day in the heat. We have absorbed lots of UV radiation on that hill and decided to leave at 3:00pm.

We have tried to work numerous stations during the day, but none worked. That location does not seem to be too good.

Trip home was far from uneventful - IDOT decided to close entire I-270 in one direction including all 3 exits between I-55 and the Mississippi river, so we have ended up searching for a way home. Nice to have GPS in a phone, it receives traffic updates!

Herbert AF4JF went alone to EM48rq to work Bill K0AWU from EM39ka in the evening at 7:00pm. Much better timing than the day before, signal was S9 at times! We have made CW and later SSB contact easily.

Herbert AF4JF and Rich N0PQU went to other location west of St. Louis (Callaway exit from I-70 in MO) on Sunday. As usual, we have found HAM-friendly vegetation around the place where we wanted to set up:

(microwaves really do not penetrate this)

We found a nice location couple of miles west of this place. Note that it is just in EM38, thus new grid square! We have set up on an intersection between highway service road and some farmers country road into corn fields:

As you can see on this picture, we were confronted with some rain. Not bad and unfortunately no RS propagation. This is in EM38xw.

This picture shows the direction towards Bill K0AWU. We have both worked him from his EM39ka with strong signals, both CW and SSB.  Distance 59 miles.

Finally, we have made severe QSOs with Ron KO0Z and his family - Debbie KC9ULA and Roman KD9COA. They were in EM48aw, about 5 miles away. Very strong signals, easy SSB contacts! Time was 01:50pm and we were done for the day.

The entire group met for lunch at nearby gas station ... no, we didn't drink gas. I have left that to my car and enjoyed the delicious home-made food at the Iron Skillet restaurant.

We will use the experience from this contest in planning for the next one. As Ron mentioned in his posting below, we intend to do some "leap-frogging" from Saint Louis towards a winery in Hermann, MO.

Funny was that we were visited by two Highway Patrol officers ... but they weren't interested in us. A guy on a motor bike stopped at our location for talk and parked his bike on the service road. They just warned him, but remained friendly otherwise.

This contest was followed by solar eclipse on 8/21/2017, full totality captured on following picture at 1:17pm from EM48rq:

73 Herbert

AF4JF