I turned the K2 onto 40 Meters tonight with fingers crossed; and to my surprise, I was awarded with a nice quiet band to try and hunt the Foxes. At 0106 UTC I was awarded a nice furry pelt, by bagging Todd N9NE. Todd is in Wisconsin and always seems to have a fantastic signal into NJ.
My heart was buoyant; as I tuned up the band looking for Paul NG7Z, the other Fox. Soon enough, I found him. His signal wasn't quite as strong as Todd's; but after all, Paul is in Washington state, so it was fitting that he was a bit weaker. A bit weaker, yes, but totally workable ..... until the neighborhood 40 Meter QRN reared its ugly head again.
At about 0120 UTC, the "light switch" was flipped; and I was rewarded with solid 20 over S9 QRN across the 40 Meter band. Paul's signal went from solid copy to ESP as he faded into the muck and mire. Or maybe it would be better to say that his signal went to ESP levels as the muck and mire devoured him. At around 0130 UTC, I thought the QRN was going to fade - and it did for about a minute or so. Then it came back louder than ever; and finally at about 0220 UTC, I shut the K2 down for the night. It's very disheartening when you KNOW you could have bagged both Foxes and walk away with only one pelt.
73 de Larry W2LJ
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