10/05/2003 | KF9US After hearing about the Northern Lights 10 gig project from W9FZ, I realized that my family and I would be in the vicinity of Lake Superior during the first weekend, so I made sure that I had my 10 gig portable rig handy. It's a Down East transverter, with a modified Qualcomm 1 watt PA and a Yaesu FT-290RII IF rig. The antenna was a 17 dB horn. I had to share the IF rig between co-ord and IF, so it took a while to get things lined up.

This proved to be a very minor problem, as the 10 gig signals across Lake Superior were stronger than 2 meters, by far.

My family was romping around on the beach, as I set up the tripod and lugged the battery to the water's edge. We were on the road to the Porcupine Mountain State Park, west of Ontonagon, Michigan. I couldn't believe how good the signals were...I worked hams on SSB on my side of the lake(line of sight), across the lake, and, to our great surprise, a group on my side of the lake (non-line-of-sight) by bouncing signals off of the far shoreline.

These super signals were in stark contrast to the nasty 10 gig conditions across Lake Michigan on the second weekend. I only managed 1 QSO that outing, and it was a CW contact, just above the noise.

All in all, the contest was a blast! I'll be back next year!

73,

Phil -- KF9US