Sep 20, 2014 -  the “10 Gig & Up” Contest - my first real 10 GHZ  QSO  (I don't really count, 50+ years ago, a 200 foot contact down my driveway to my non-ham father. The rigs came from a QST  article using an amplitude modulated 2K25 klystron and a 1N21 in a tomato can as a mixer and a surplus IF strip..      The klystrons were tuned  the IF apart. By the time I lugged the IF strips back from Cortland Street I had run out of  wherewithal for dishes. We did a lot of careful aligning of those tomato cans!!!

That was then, this  is now!  Fast forward half of a lifetime …         I had agreed to host the Forguites  boys, brothers Randy, KA1LEX, and John, N1EEV on their weekend rove.  As promised  noon also  brought Randy and John … and … surprise …   a third 10 GHZ unit for me to use … I dug out my trusty FT817, key, mike and the appropriate cables and  got setup … we had a sked with Mike, N1JEZ, and Henry, KT1J, way across Lake  Champlain  82 km near the summit of Whiteface  and Mike went first on 10 GHZ and despite the heavy clouds laying on the lake they found each others signals and made the exchange quickly. Then John and Mike and then me. The loaner unit I was using had as its 10 GHZ signal source an assembly salvaged from a collision avoidance sensor mounted in a box chassis and feeding a 6 db horn … output about 5 milliwatts  … between  my inexperience and the awesome drift of the sensor, it   took almost 10 minutes for Mike to find my signal. That done, I locked in on his signal pretty quickly. The three went   around again. This time with Henry. Then Randy and Mike   worked each other on 24 GHZ and 47 GHZ.

 Picture 1 -  Brian, N1BQ, using Randy’s 10 GHZ loaner ( box set up on end with feed horn)

 Picture 2 - Brian’s operating position  FT817 IF rig, CW paddle and  mic

 Picture 3 - John, N1EEV and Randy’s 24 GHZ rig

 Picture  4 - Brian, N1BQ  and Randy’s 47 GHZ rig

 Picture 5 - rear view of  the 47 GHZ rig, showing the small transverter/ amplifier combo which puts out a whopping 10 MICROwatts!