Simple statement:  BEST. 10GHz+ CONTEST.  EVER.  I started the first weekend at FN02nu on Saturday, which is the Safe Harbor Marina south of Buffalo, NY.  This location has a great view of Lake Erie and provided me plenty of QSO's with the VE's who park along the Canadian shore of the lake, as well as US hams who park at various locations along the US shoreline.  Conditions were good but not great, so I only managed one 24GHz QSO, but there were plenty of fairly long-haul 10GHz contacts.  Best DX of the day was 336km.  The next day, Sunday, I went to one of my favorite locations- FN02xu which is the top of the hill on Transit Road in Pavilion, NY (southwest of Rochester).  The farmer who owns the property has welcomed hams there for this contest for years- we park right in his front yard!  This spot has some great long haul DX capabilities and it was no different this year.  From there I had QSO's with AF1T, W1MKY, and K1RZ on Block Island (FN41ee) at 563km; N1JEZ, W1FKF, W1AIM, W1EX, and KA1NKV who were all on Mt. Washington (FN44ig) at 568km (best DX of the contest for me), as well as KA1OJ on Mt. Wachusett (FN42bl) at 505km.  On Saturday, I was joined by KA2LIM who worked the W8/VE crowd with me, and on Sunday Ken was still with me and we were joined by K8ZR and KB8VAO, who also worked the gang on Block Island.  I ended the first weekend with my best ever first weekend score of over 15k.

Fast forward four weeks.  I planned once again, to rove New England with Rus K2UA.  KA2LIM also wanted to go along so we planned an extensive run through the mountains starting at Thacher Park near Schenectady, NY only to find out that the park has now changed its rules and doesn't permit parking along the overlook for any length of time.  Scratch that location.  So we figured out that we should start deeper into MA and went to FN42ad Saturday morning.  This location is the Bay Path Vocational High School in Charlton, MA and is a beautiful spot- no problems with people (on weekends, anyway) and it's good and high.  We started there and Murphy hit me almost immediately- my 10Ghz radio wouldn't transmit- I could hear fine, but no one could hear me beyond our own parking lot.  Rus, Ken and I put our heads together (thanks, guys!) and figured out that it was the T/R relay not switching.  Cause: the homebrew relay "kicker" I built had failed.  I use 28v relays, but only have 12v available, so I had built a circuit that generates a spike of 28v to trigger the relay, then it drops back to 12v to hold it.  It was dead.  To save the weekend for myself, I ended up stealing the same board from the 24GHz transverter and borrowing a spare relay from Ken (in case all that RF into an open port had damaged mine) and got 10GHz going again.  When we finally left FN42ad, I had almost caught up to the other guys' QSO totals, so it was a pretty good recovery.  Next we went to FN32kp, the Mount Greylock Eastern Overlook.  Fabulous location (of course)!  And we worked the heck out of everyone until we finally pulled out of there as it wa getting dark.

We spent the night in Bennington, VT and on Sunday, headed for FN32ou (Hogback Mountain).  This is another great spot, with one exception- the spot is right on the side of RT9 and the truck and motorcycle traffic is deafening!  Headphones were a must, even though most signals were on the peg in strength.  We stayed there till almost noon, then headed for FN33kd (Mt. Equinox).  We spent the rest of the afternoon there and worked a number of stations.  Ken left us then, as his path home was different (and longer) than ours.

Rus and I headed toward our last stop of the contest, a place we don't think has been used for the 10GHz contest before- FN23ea.  This is a spot on the side of the road near Verona, NY in central New York, not far off I-90.  It's high and has a great vista from about 180 degrees clockwise to about 140 degrees.  We had arranged for W1GHZ and KB1VC (on Block Island) as well as AF1T and W1MKY (on Martha's Vineyard), to still be on when we got there, around 0000Z.  As well, some Canadians agreed to be on for us.  We set up in the dark and quickly worked all four VE's who waited for us, then turned to the East to concentrate on the DX out that way.  After fixing a pointing error (I use the sun to orient my antennas- alas, after it sets, I have to resort to a compass!) I managed to work all four stations for the best DX of the second weekend at 389 and 447km, respectively.  Rus struggled (he runs MUCH lower power than I do), but managed a QSO with AF1T.  We were doing that in the rain- as soon as he was complete with Dale, we pulled the switch and got ourselves out of there!

It was a great contest- I ended up with my best score ever by far- over 33k.  Rus and Ken did very well, also.  Ken's score is likely close to mine, and Rus did very well for a one weekend effort- something like 70 QSO's.

A final side note- the problem with the relay drive was self-inflicted.  The cause turned out to be a broken solder joint on the board, which we were able to fix in our hotel room Saturday night and put back into service in the 24GHz rig on Sunday.  It had been working for well over 10 years, and in all probability was barely hanging on for all that time.

We're looking forward to next year, and hope to have even better results to talk about.  I'll post some pix here as oon as I have them sorted out.

73

Dave K2DH