02/14/2009 | N0KGM This was an important contest for me this year because I spent the previous several months setting up a 10GHZ and 24GHZ station for the first time and plan to use the contest as the true test.

There is a group of us in Utah, who set the goal to also have our 10GHZ base stations up and running by the contest. None of us wanted to go portable and fight the snow and ice in the Utah mountains to work the contest.

After substantial testing right up to the start of the contest, my 10GHZ station went offline 2 hours into the contest. Ron, K7RJ and Clint, KA7OEI (the "Red Light" guys - MAR09 QST), left their operating positions, to aide my recovery....what a team! We quickly discovered an issue with the switching on a coax relay. Clint did his usual magic and I was back on the air in a few hours.

I was able to operate 6 bands and make some interesting 10GHZ contacts by bouncing signals off the Wasatch mountain range to connect with my fellow Utah Microwave operators. -- N0KGM