02/24/2005 | VE3FN I quickly assembled my 10 GHz narrow-band (SSB/CW) station just before the first weekend. I used a 10 GHz transverter made by DB6NT and a 2 Watt DB6NT amplifier. I used an old Icom IC-202 as the IF.

I have no microwave test equipment and there are no other local amateurs on 10 GHz narrowband who could help me test my station. So, prior to the contest, I had no way of determining if the station was working or if it was on frequency.

I operated the contest from two hilltop outlooks in the Gatineau Park located just north-west of Ottawa and across the border (from my Ottawa Ontario home) in Quebec (VE2). The first site in the park (FN25bm) is easily accessible by a paved road. It is approximately 1150 feet ASL and approximately 800 feet above the terrain to the south and west. It provides an excellent clear shot towards New York state and southern Ontario. The second site (FN25bl) is at about the same elevation, but is only accessible by a hiking over a rugged trail. It provides good shots to the east and south-east, in addition to good shots to the south and west.

I was on the hill at the first site by 0800 on Saturday of the first weekend and started to set up. Rick VE3CVG and Doug VE3XK joined me a few minutes later. Rick got the talkback station going. Almost immediately, we heard VE3SMA at his home in south-west Ontario S9+ on 144 MHz. But Steve didnt have a clear shot in our direction, so we didnt try 10 GHz. Shortly after, the park police showed up and asked if we could be interfering with their radios as they were hearing other voices on their channel. I explained that was unlikely and that we had just switched everything off. I then explained that radio conditions were enhanced and they were probably hearing distant stations using the same channel.

We tried a few 10 GHz QSOs all over paths of around 200 km, but we had no success. The compass in my GPS gave erratic readings, so aiming was a problem. In all cases, we tuned over a wide range as we were unsure of our frequency.

Finally, we seemed to resolve our problems of aiming and got agreement between the GPS and the electronic compass. We made a sked with WB2BYP operating on a hill in FN23av south of Watertown NY. Doug VE3XK tuned him in on 10 GHz, but he couldn't hear us. He was Q5 copy over a path of about 181 km. And he was only off our indicated frequency by a few kHz. So at least we knew we could hear, we were on frequency, and we had resolved our problems with aiming the antenna. But we didn't know if the transmitter was working. We packed it in around 14:00.

The following week, I dug in to the station. I corrected an error that I had made in wiring the sequencer that had prevented the T/R relay from fully activating on transmit. No one could hear us on 10 GHz because our signal never made it to the antenna! I checked out the station a couple of weeks later when VE3NPB and I met at a local flea market and made a 10 GHz QSO over a distance of about 20 feet.

On the second weekend, I again arranged to meet Rick VE3CVG and Doug VE3XK at the first site in the Gatineau hills at about 0800 Saturday morning. It was bright and sunny but quite cool about 6 degrees C (43 degrees F).

We got the 10 GHz station and the 2 meter liaison station set up quite quickly and looked around 2 meters for stations seeking skeds on 10 GHz. We tried a sked with K2LDU over a long path (about 300 km) without success. I again had erratic readings with the electronic compass in my Garmin GPS receiver, so we relied on VE3XK's electronic compass and included the correction factor for the difference between true and magnetic readings.

A little after 0930, we contacted Fred WO2P on 2 meters. He was operating portable from a hilltop in FN02xu south of Rochester NY. The path was quite long 343 km. He had a station similar to ours. We set the antenna direction and started sending dashes on 10368.1 MHz. He came back on the 2-meter liaison frequency and said he was copying us fine! He transmitted to us and we copied him immediately. We completed the exchange on CW he was solid Q5 the whole time. We were thrilled because we had just made our first real narrow-band QSO on 10 GHz!

We then tried without success to work W2DYY who was located close to WO2P. W2DYY heard us, but we could not hear him.

At about 10:30, we contacted N2EZS on 2 meters. He was located on a hill south of Watertown NY in FN23av. We had heard WB2BYP when he was operating at this location during the first weekend. The path is shorter than that of our first QSO 181km but still significant. N2EZS started sending dashes and we heard him quite well once we expanded the range our search frequencies he was a little lower in frequency than we anticipated. We worked him on CW he was a solid 579. Then we switched to SSB and continued the QSO.

After this QSO, there didn't seem to be other stations to try to work. We ate a bit of lunch about noon. Unfortunately, Rick VE3CVG had to leave. But Doug was anxious to try to work stations to the south-east and east which were blocked at this outlook. We decided to try a second site in the park about 5 km away. It is in FN25bl and has excellent shots to the east in addition to great shots to the south and west. Unfortunately, it is accessible only by taking a rugged trail entailing a walk of close to a mile.

The view from the second site was great! Ottawa was plainly visible to the south-east, about 800 feet below us and beyond a lower nearby hill. We set up our 2-meter station and immediately heard Jimmy VE2JWH operating from a hill north-west of Montreal. We easily worked him on 10 GHz. We then heard KA1LEX on 2 meters operating from FN24xw in north-east New York state. We worked him on 10 GHz over a path of 154 km. We tried to work VE2PIJ on a hill in FN35qi close to Mount Sutton (east of Montreal). He heard us, but we could not hear him over the 251 km path.

We thought there were stations operating on the mountains of New England, but we couldn't find anybody on the 2 meter liaison frequency. We then heard W2DYY on 2 meters. He was still at the same location as he was during the morning when we failed to complete a QSO. Signals were now down on 2 meters as it was the middle of the afternoon. We again tried to complete a 10 GHz QSO over the path of 343 km, but we could not hear each other.

By this time Doug and I were tired. So we shut down about 1530 and headed back. We didn't bring any water with us as we had tried to save weight and we were both very thirsty. And we knew we had a real tough hike back to the car. All in all, a successful and enjoyable outing! -- VE3FN