ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest - 2021
Call: K2UA
Operator(s): K2UA
Station: K2UA
Class: 10G Plus HP
QTH: WNY
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band Number of Calls Tot Dist(km)
-------------------------------------
10G: 190 40186
24G: 27 1730
47G: 6 403
75G:
123G: 3 3
134G:
241G:
Light:
-------------------------------------
Total: 226 42322 Total Score = 50,522
Club: Rochester VHF Group
Team:
Comments:
Wow, what a great contest!
Summary
Band QSOs Points Calls Avg km/QSO
10 GHz 190 40186 60 211.5
24 GHz 27 1730 14 64.1
47 GHz 6 403 5 67.2
122 GHz 3 3 3 1.0
Total 226 42322 82 187.3
The 2021 running produced far, far better than I had hoped and expected. Last
year was heavily impacted by weather and COVID-19, so I was hoping for the best
this year, but the conditions and activity far exceeded my expectations.
August Weekend
I operated with K2DH, KA2LIM (Saturday), and K9PW (Sunday). N2MG had planned to
join us for the weekend but had a basement flooding situation to deal with that
would have caused domestic grid current had he ignored it. K2DH and I operated
from the Buffalo waterfront, FN02nu, the first day, where I logged 49 contacts.
We moved on to Genesee Community College in FN03wa for the evening, logging
another 10 contacts including our first ones of the contest with AF1T and
W1MKY--those turned out to edge out a contact with W8BYA from FN02nu by just 2
km for the longest contacts of the contest at 574 km. 24 GHz was truly
disappointing the first day--even with massive signals over the lake on 10 GHz,
there was absolutely no enhancement to be had on 24 because the humidity was so
high. My longest contact of the weekend was with Andy, K0SM, at just over 100
km.
The second day, we started early at a roadside farm in FN02xu, well known to
quite a number of operators, but this was the first time I've operated there. We
were joined by K9PW for this and the next two stops. I logged 20 QSOs. The bands
were good but most of our QSOs from there were quite short. An attempt with
W8BYA was unsuccessful in every way except for getting Gedas out of bed much
earlier than he wanted to be up. We went on from there to FN02tr, a site I just
scouted this year, and it worked out well, though it was tricky to fit three
operators there without blocking each other (which became a theme for us for
both weekends). It also produced my first New England contact, with N1JEZ. The
third site was another newly scouted location, FN12dr, produced 15 QSOs
including K1RZ in FM19jh and three stations on Mt Mansfield, FN34om. Our last
site of the weekend was FN12gv, at a water tank/tower site, which is not as good
as it normally is because the corn is so tall this year! But it produced 9 more
Qs, including another with K1RZ at about 400 km, and about 1000 mosquitoes. The
first weekend wrapped up with 119 QSOs, including 99 on 10 GHz, 17 on 24 GHz,
and two each on 47 and 122 GHz--huge compared to the year before, up more than
40 more QSOs compared to 2020. It certainly set me up with high hopes for the
second weekend!
In the September weekend, N2MG, K2DH, and I ventured to New England once again.
This is my fifth year operating with Dave, K2DH, and I always look forward to
the mountains we activate there. There's always some weather trepidation,
especially this year, but the weekend was setting up to be quite nice--and it
delivered. The only rain we had was Saturday evening when we arrived at the
western overlook of Mt Greylock, FN32jp.
On Saturday morning, we were on-site early at Hogback, FN32ou, and stayed quite
a bit longer than we had planned--but we were rewarded. I logged 21 QSOs there,
including two on 24 GHz and my first long 47 GHz QSO of the contest, with WA1MBA
in FN42bl. The reason we stayed so long was that we wanted to work the nine (!)
stations on Mt Kearsarge! A bunch of great ops there--I logged them all on 10
GHz in three clock minutes and Mike and Dave did the same! From Hogback, we went
northwest to Mt Equinox. We had planned to spend some time on the summit and
some on the saddle, but because we were so late we didn't have time to do both.
So we set up on the saddle and made a great stretch of contacts with stations in
WNY and Canada, including 12 of my 21 Qs from there. Conditions were favorable
for some long contacts! After that we went on to the Mt Greylock western
overlook to try to repeat those long contacts. We arrived just before the rain
did, so the clock was ticking toward sunset as we waited for the rain to end.
Within 20 minutes, we were able to set up and get on. I logged eight more QSOs
there--all of them in the WNY and greater Toronto areas. We also logged a lot of
fog, which produced some interesting photos. It was a productive stop!
Sunday morning, we were on Mt Greylock about the same time as the sunrise (6:30
AM) setting up at the eastern/southern overlook at FN32kp. Historically this has
been one of our most productive sites, and this year was no exception. I logged
31 QSOs from there, including a couple on very strong coastal tropo (N3RG,
WB2ONA) and my longest ever 47 GHz QSOs, with WA1MBA, KA1OJ, and W1EX at 104 km.
This was also my best site for 24 GHz contacts, with five of them going into the
log, including regulars N1JEZ, K1OR, and the 47 GHz guys.
We were on the road about 1 PM for Central New York, where we had planned three
stops. We had to drop one because of the time--we were on-site about 2 hours
longer than we had planned at Greylock, but there was no way we were leaving
there before making the most of it! We arrived at our regular stop in
Stockbridge, NY, FN23ea, around 4:30 PM. We were in for a great treat there,
including a beautiful sunset and simultaneous moonrise and the beginning of some
of the best tropo I have ever experienced on the microwave bands! I logged 17
Qs, including memorable airplane scatter contacts with AF1T, W1MKY, and
aircraft-assisted contact with W1GHz. We worked several other New Englanders,
including our regular targets W1GHZ, N1DPM, K1OR, K1CA, and WNY regulars K2TER,
K2CS, N2WK, NU2F (W2FU), and several Canadians. After K0SM and N2WK with 12 QSOs
each, my second-most logged station in the contest was VE3SMA with 12
contacts--and this is the spot where we decided to try 24 GHz and were amazed at
the signals over the 238-km path! After that contact, Steve told me he was
running just 250 mW into a 1-foot dish. The tropo was rocking!
>From there we moved on to another new-to-us site that N2MG had scouted earlier
in the month. We arrived around 8:30 PM at the (very quiet) Godfrey Point boat
launch on Oneida Lake in FN23bf. This site was off-the-charts good in both the
visual and radio aspects! We had bright moonlight for our entire time
there--enough to cast an easy shadow for compass calibration. From an RF point
of view, the tropo was in full swing at that point. N2WK was S9+60 on 10 GHz and
well over S9 on 24 GHz at 150+ km. VE3KH was S9+50 but on 10 GHz but
unfortunately we couldn't hear each other on 24. VE3EG was very strong on 10 GHz
as well--way over S9. We tried on the direct path with VA3TO, but it's an uphill
shot into the trees from the boat launch. So we swung around to the west to work
NU2F, and at the end of that contact we were surprised to hear VA3TO tail-end
Jeff on SSB and work him. We called VA3TO after that and worked him on some
weird bounce from FN23bf to FN03vw with solid SSB signals. He clearly peaked for
us toward W2FU's station in FN13he. As we were getting ready to leave, we tried
with Andy, K0SM, who has a blocked path to our direction. We both pointed at
Toronto and worked him off a bounce at the western end of Lake Ontario
somewhere, with great signals! I also logged AF1T, W1MKY, and W1GHZ from this
site, some of the longer QSOs of the two weekends. It was a remarkable time and
I wish we'd been able to stay longer with those conditions!
The second weekend wrapped up with another 107 QSOs in the log, and a 2-hour
drive back to K2DH's place for the night. Nothing broke, we had a great time,
and experienced some amazing conditions. I was delighted to see that more and
more stations are getting on the air! This year, N2ZN, K2CS, and K2TER all put
in the effort to build and activate new portable setups and were pretty excited
about being on the bands! N2MKT really upped his game on 10 GHz and added 24 GHz
as well. Andy, K0SM, is new to 24 GHz and came up the curve very quickly to
master the band. We also worked a number of Canadians who have either added 10
GHz or upgraded significantly for this year's contest, so in all we had many
more stations to work. Thank you, one and all--those who put in the effort and
got on and those who stepped up with coaching and lending equipment and
expertise to help them do it. Imagine how much more this contest will grow if
everyone mentors just one new person onto the 10 GHz and up bands for next
year's contest!
For those who've read this far--thank you--and thanks so much for the QSOs and
attempts!
Finally, please send me your stories and photos at my arrl.net address for the
QST writeup! And SUBMIT YOUR LOGS. Be careful to get the details right! As I
mentioned in last year's writeup, the League will be doing full-blown log
checking with accompanying score reductions, where applicable, for this year's
contest!
--73, Rus, K2UA
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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