Well, this has been an exciting day. I got up early this morning and went out to Perry Township Park near North Perry, Ohio. I was the first one there but was soon joined by W8MKF and KB8YHF. The park is a great place to operate from. We operated atop a cliff that overlooks Lake Erie. We were able to easily make contacts with any station that was setup along the edge of the Lake, and beyond. First contact was with Hamilton, Ontario followed quickly by Buffalo, New York. It was very cool to just start working my way around the lake making lots of contacts just by twisting the dish a few degrees.

I was told that there are usually many more people operating from park and that in years past it would have been difficult to find a spot to setup. This year that was not the case although, in hind sight, I should have setup under the trees to give me a little shade.

Other plans curtailed my afternoon operating time and I thought that my operating was done until I arrived back home on Sunday but that was not the case. I received a message from VA3ELE asking if I was still on the air. After explaining that I was now back in the suburbs of Cleveland and completely surrounded by neighboring houses and trees it was suggested that I try just pointing at the sky. I was almost completely surrounded by rain which made for an opportunity for some rain-bounce propagation. Pointing towards the north, and aiming over the trees, I was able to work VA3ELE, VE2UG, and VA3TO. I missed one station as I needed to run for a raincoat to protect my gear from the downpour that occurred mid-contact.

I arrived back home in the early evening of Sunday and took my gear to the beach to make some contacts from my home grid. First contacts were to Block Island, Rhode Island, where K1RZ, K3WHC, AF1T, and W1MKY were all on a DXpedition. These contacts were 506km each adding to my decent score. The contacts were also made using rain-scatter. Earlier in the week when I worked AF1T there was no rain to be seen and the contact was an easy tropo-scatter contact.

I was able to give out my rare grid of FM18 to most of the local that are on 10GHz and made some new friends along the way. I struggled to get N3RG in the log, for unknown reasons. We are not that far apart but haven’t been able to make contact with each other until today. Oddly enough, pointing directly at his house I was able to hear him but it sounded like rain-scatter. Pointing towards the rain I could see falling over the Delmarva Peninsula made his signal vanish. Operating on the microwave bands sure is interesting.

Overall, I’m pleased with my results for the weekend. I operated from three minor grids and worked twenty-two (22) unique callsigns for a total combined distance of 5,465km. It appears that I have captured 7,665 points so far during Round One and now I just need to figure out Round Two.

I didn’t hear any digital contacts and I wasn’t setup for them either, but I do want to try some Q65 and see how that works at some point.

Thanks to all the stations that were on the air during the contest, especially those that roved. I’m already thinking about a return trip to Lake Erie next year.

All QSOs have been uploaded to LoTW and QSL cards have been sent.