The 2014 Ten GHz & Up contest was a blast in Arizona! We have had increases in participation the past two years and this year had ten different stations, which I know of, launching and receiving 3 cm waves.  AD7OI, K7RJ, KA6PSD, KJ7OG, KD7OIW, KI5WL, NU8I, W7CS, W7GNP and WA8WZG all took a shot at working during one weekend or both. There were some challenges, but great learning opportunities and fun. We also had QSO’s with California amateurs. (Thanks Six-land folks!) Many stations had more than one amateur, or observer present.

If you like real world microwave engineering this is a place to be. The first weekend Steve, KJ7OG and I roved to a total of six sites between the two of us. We both started at Mt Bigelow just north of Tucson. This was our best site by far for the first weekend. We had the pleasure of demonstrating microwave amateur radio to several groups of Boy Scouts and other visitors. Steve is an expert at this. The second weekend Bob, WA3HRM and I roved to Pinal Peak in central Arizona, and then to Mt Lemmon in the Santa Catalina mountains.

The first picture attached shows Bob and I on top of Mt Lemmon at 9,159 feet altitude. Note that we are above a significant cloud deck. Not optimum, but we worked AD7OI outside San Diego, and WA8WZG on Harquahala Mt in western Arizona. The second shot shows Bob, in front of a large optical telescope dome setting up a contact using 432 MHz as a lesion frequency.

The 10 GHz rig is built around a Kuhne transverter and LNA, and a Down East Microwave 8 watt amplifier. The UHF antenna is a log periodic covering the amateur bands from 200 to 1,300 MHz.   

73 & GL on the SHF bands,

Jeff  KI5WL