Saturday, January 23, 2010

80 Meters - the safe haven.

Disappointed by the intrusion of RTTY signals which caused the break up of my QSO with KG4TUY on 40 Meters, I found a safe harbor on 80 Meters.

At 0146 UTC, I heard NN3C calling "CQ" and decided to throw out my callsign in answer. What resulted was a most delightful QSO with Kurt which ended up lasting nearly 45 minutes. Kurt doesn't live all that far from me - he hails from Oreland, PA, which is a suburb of Philadelphia. As the crow flies, that's probably 50 miles away - 60 miles tops.


NN3C photo from QRZ.com - take note of the HW-8 on the top shelf!


What made the QSO interesting is that we're both about the same age (I'm two years older) and we were both licensed in 1978. We are both fans of CW and Kurt likes to dabble with PSK31 also. Kurt's fist was excellent and he had a good 579/589 signal - armchair copy all the way.

Kurt was using his Kenwood TS-930S to a dipole; and his equipment did a fantastic job for him. We had a great time conversing about our common interests and the histories of our original callsigns - mine being KA2DOH and his being KA3ALP.

It was one of those QSOs that ends way too soon; and leaves you hoping for another. With luck there will be one.

73 de Larry W2LJ

2 comments:

  1. Hey Larry --

    I was doing a Google search for my newly assigned SKCC number and found your blog as one of many hits. Finding what you opined about our QSO last month was very nice indeed. I do not think I have ever been the subject of someone's blog before. So that was nice of you to do so. My new SKCC # is 6446 so look for me pounding brass again either on 40 or 80 meters. I will be a bit slower using my straight key versus my electronic keyer and paddles, but pounding it out just the same. Thanks for your kind words here and for a wonderful CW QSO!

    Warm regards,

    Kurt (NN3C)

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  2. Kurt,

    The pleasure of the QSO was mine; and congrats on the new SKCC#. The SKCC is a great group and I think you'll really enjoy being a member.

    73 de Larry W2LJ

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