The 2015 ARRL 10 GHz and Above contest turned out to be one of the best for me as a rover in a many years. The first weekend was a new experience using a homebrew slot antenna fabricated from a length of WR90 waveguide. The antenna is comprised of 40 slots and mag mounted to the roof of the rover car. The best dx with this antenna was 118 km. I also had a one meter dish with me and achieved my best dx of 166 km. This was the longest dx for the first weekend. I made 18 QSO’s with 7 unique call signs. It was great to see a renewed interest in 10 GHz contesting in north Texas.

The September weekend of the 10 GHz contest took me to Grand Isle, LA. This QTH is the southernmost point in Louisiana accessible by car. Grand Isle is a barrier island, 7 miles long composed of a sand dune along the Gulf of Mexico side of the island, with no access to the beach by vehicle. The beauty of this QTH is, it has a water view of the Gulf of Mexico states from Mississippi to the Florida Keys. This is the second attempt in the last two years to make contacts with stations along the Gulf coast. Saturday morning I was set up next to the bridge connecting the mainland to the Grand Isle in EL49xf. My goal was to make as many contacts as possible with Tony, WA8RJF, roving from Mississippi to the eastern end of the Florida panhandle. I was also looking for Sandra, K4SME roving with Steve, N2CEI from the Florida Keys north along the west coast of Florida.

Two other known operators were set up in Mexico Beach, FL, Ben, K4QF and Terry, AA2LY. Saturday I tracked Tony all day and made 6 QSO’s with the longest being 221 km. Early in the morning I was able to work AA2LY in EL79hw at a distance of 459 km.

The motel I was staying at has a deck overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. I asked the motel manager if I could use the deck on Sunday for my microwave activities. He said yes, but there was no power on the deck. He said I could run an extension cord from the outlets under the motel, the motel being on stilts to the upper deck. So, I headed to the only grocery store on the island in hopes of finding an extension cord. Luck was on my side. The grocery store sold not only food supplies but T-shirts, trinkets and limited hardware. I bought a 50 foot extension cord and was operational from the deck Sunday morning.

My first contact at sunrise on Sunday was with Ben, K4QF in EL79hw. Ben was running 2 watts to a two foot dish. The contact was first made on cw and we switched to ssb. Signals were 59+ in both directions at a distance of 459 km. The rest of the day I tracked Tony, WA8RJF and made 7 QSO’s with him with the last one just after sunset also in EL79hw.

Two attempts were made with Sandra, K4SME along the west Florida coast. The first attempt showed no signals in either direction. But during the second attempt at 1430 in the afternoon, Sandra was hearing my cw signal and call sign. Unfortunately, I was not hearing her signal. Sandra and Steve were in EL87se, a distance of 781 km. Sandra was using 10 watts to a 2 meter dish and I was using 40 watts to a one meter dish. So close but no two-way exchange.

This year’s contest was my best ever score in any 10 GHz contest, 33 QSO’s, 10 unique calls for a score of 6,638. Total driving distance for both weekends was 1,250 miles. With the momentum building to engage operations along the Gulf of Mexico, 2016 should be ever more fun.