09/27/2003 | K0KFC 9/27/03

The Northern Lights Radio Society (NLRS), with members from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa & the Dakotas, organized several teams to explore propagation conditions on various multiple paths across Lake Superior as part of the 10 ghz contest. One team traveled up the West side of Lake Superior North of Duluth, MN; another on the Southern end of the lake along the Wisconsin shore, and, a third group traveled East to the upper peninsula of Michigan near Eagle Harbor, Michigan. Fifteen 10 ghz stations from the NLRS took part in the Lake Superior experiment.

Propagation conditions were astounding in that a suspected evaporation duct phenomena may have accounted for the typically S9 signals (and often +20 db) experienced over open water paths of up to 300 km. In one case, signals were S9 using open waveguide pointed in the general direction of the Michigan team across the lake. While duct conditions are often seen in warm water Gulf areas, our interest was to observe conditions across the cold water of Lake Superior.

As a part of the group traveling to the upper peninsula Michigan, the biggest thrill of the weekend was hearing both ends of a 10 ghz QSO taking place on a largely North to South path from Northern Minnesota to Northern Wisconsin. At the time, while we were nearly 275 km East and almost perpendicular to that path.

73s

-- K0KFC