08/23/2002 | W4SW The 10 GHz Contest has been my favorite for the past 12 years, but this year was the best ever. Activity was definitely up.

We knew ahead of time on both weekends that conditions would not be the best. For 10 GHz, Hepburn did not forecast any special tropo. For 24 and 47 GHz, the dew point forecast was for 70, and the fog forecast was for fog, as usual! Nevertheless, the first weekend we kept busy all day both days on Reddish Peak (el. 4398'). I had the company of John, W3HMS on Saturday, and Steve, KB8VAO, Neil, AB4YK, and Erik, KG4DGF on Sunday. For the second weekend I did a solo rove from Montvale on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Signal Knob on Skyline Drive, all in Virginia. In spite of thunderstorm forecasts, not a drop fell, and I made all planned stops.

The only down side was on the first weekend when a sudden rain Sunday afternoon drove me into the van, and then a sudden wind gust toppled my tripod. The dish survived, but the feed support had to be replaced. My thanks to Erik, KG4DGF, who loaned me a spare home brew horn, allowing me to continue.

Summary:
60 QSOs on 10 GHz. Best DX: W4DEX at 368.8 km from Reddish
20 QSOs on 24 GHz. Best DX: W3IY at 99.6 km from Reddish
15 QSOs on 47 GHz. Best DX: W3IY at 89.3 km from Reddish
On 10 GHz, we almost had WA4DFS on Mt. Mitchell, but we were unable to complete. That would have been over 400 km from Reddish.

Contacts on 24 and 47 GHz clearly present more of a challenge. I think more activity could be encouraged on these bands by providing band multipliers (x2 for 24 GHz; x3 for 47 GHz; x4 for 76 GHz, and x5 for 120 GHz and higher) on the distance points.

Let's make next year even better!

73,
Bernie, W4SW
w4sw@arrl.net -- W4SW