first thing in the morning.  As an experienced rover, I should have known better.

Our next spot was near the Seul Choix Lighthouse (EN75aw) (pronounced "sis shwa").  We intended to operate right at the lighthouse.  I ran in and secured permission but it was going to require 150-200 yards of carrying to get down to the beach.  Future operators will have to do that.  Our solution, which probably won't work for others in the future was to track back to the west about 2miles and operate from a home construction site right on the water.  Again, signals were easy with K2YAZ and the four remaining on the beach.  We had some trouble getting hooked up with NE8I and WA8VPD.  They had moved to near Northport, MI and set up at EN75ee.  It was windy on our end but apparently even windier on their end.  Completing the QSO's took quite a while.  The Seul Choix Lighthouse is actually at EN75bw.  They have a website at http://www.reiters.net/lighthouse/ and future users may want to email seulchoix@reiters.net  to smooth the works.

Finally, we moved to our last spot (EN65vw), which is a parking area on the east end of the "boardwalk" in Manistique.  An excellent location.  We completed easily with K2YAZ and the four on the beach ("the beach bums").  QSO's were eventually made with WA8VPD and NE8I.  Several ops on the LP side and KØSHF and WBØLJC were understandably anxious to finish because all were looking at long drives to return to their homes. 

I had the next day off so I operated from one more location SW of Manistique (EN65tu) and contacted K2YAZ, WB8TGY, and KB8VAO.  I don't recommend operating from west or southwest of Manistique.  Consider Manistique your westernmost location and pick 10-mile spots east from Manistique.  I eventually asked an older couple coming out of a forest lane if they knew of any access points to the water in order for me to operate ham radio in a contest, they graciously let me use their land.  I got right down to the beach to find that I was north of a point of land (Wiggins point) that blocked shots towards K2YAZ and "the beach bums".  Well, I coordinated with YAZ on 2m and then heard him on 10g rain scatter.  We completed, and then KB8VAO and WB8TGY completed with me on SSB over a 60-mile shot.  What I find amazing is how loud the signals were considering how tall the trees were on Wiggins point and that the point was only 1/3 mile away.  There must have been some enhancement over the water of Lake Michigan.  We ended up ragchewing on 10Ghz for about 10 minutes.  A great way to finish the day.

So, a great weekend of 10GHz RF.  Many operators drove significant distances in order to make this happen, but I'd like to think it was generally rewarding for all.  It sure was for me!

Great Lakes weather in mid-September is always iffy.  In our case it was cold, sunny, and windy.  It could have been cold and rainy.  I'd like to think that if it had not been windy, perhaps 100% of the overwater shots would have been completed.  And this means LONG shots down the lake towards Milw. and Chicago.  I'm sure we'll have some good email conversations about Great Lakes propagation and the role that altitude plays.

I had a great time this year in the contest.  I operated from the Illinois/Wisconsin border area on one day, Twin Cities area another day, and at two different parts of Michigan's UP on the 2nd weekend.  I'm glad that K0SHF and WB0LJC made the trek to the UP as well.  It was much more fun having friends there.  Further, the west end contingent probably wouldn't have made the trip to the north shore just to work one operator on the east end.  Similarly on Sunday, it was much more rewarding for the LP ops to have 3 q's each time instead of one.  I'm glad that so many of them made the trek north.  Thanks!

Here's my score recap:
22 unique callsigns worked (2200) + 10993 distance points = 13193 total score.  Best DX was 311 km from Northern Illinois to K2YAZ.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yes, this e-newsletter is late.  I meant to have it out in early October.  I blame severe post-conference-burnout as the cause.  The plan is to have the next issue in the first week of January.  But as you'll realize, that is a mere three weeks away.  So, it will be just a one-pager about the current status of the Tulsa conference planning UNLESS you send me some material, appropriate for our membership, to beef up the next issue.  Any meteor shower reports, new equipment, new modes, or other tid-bits to share with your fellow members?  Send them along to your Newsletter Editor:
Bruce Richardson, W9FZ    w9fz@ix.netcom.com

2330 Lexington Ave S. #312
Mendota Hts, MN  55120

<Back