Tonight, I had a nice QSO on 30 Meters with Mike KØMDS in Kansas. You might recall from a blog entry that I made close to two weeks ago that it was Mike who was my contact as K6JSS/0 from Kansas. That QSO was tough. This one was a lot easier and was quite enjoyable. Mike answered my CQ and we went back and forth for a couple rounds before the band changed and propagation disappeared.
I was hanging out on 30 Meters tonight as there's a RTTY contest and 40 Meters is quite bad. There are RTTY signals down almost to 7.030 MHz, which was pretty unthinkable back in the mid 90s. Back then, the digital enthusiasts tried to stray no lower than 7.060 or perhaps 7.050 MHz at the lowest. That "gentleman's agreement" seems to have gone out the window or perhaps down the toilet, might be a better expression.
The HF9V served me well again tonight. Mike was a 449 and he gave me a 549. We both compared notes about the amount of snow on the ground and we both agreed wholeheartedly that we can't wait until spring. I am anxiously planning the take down of the G5RV and replacing it with an 88' EDZ, as mentioned before. I will have to place an order for one of those ladder line grabber devices so that I can homebrew the antenna when time comes. I have a 4:1 current balun kit down in the basement that I better get started on, too. I will probably need it.
K6JSS/Ø will leave Minnesota tomorrow night and will become K6JSS/7 in Arizona. The Arizona effort will be headed up by Tom AC7A, who is a fine QRPer and is also very well known in Fox Hunting circles. In fact, Tom mentioned after the Thursday night hunt, that he was using his newly acquired Ten Tec Eagle. That is one fine looking rig! I am hoping that the receiver will facilitate Tom's being able pull my weak signal out of the aether some time next week. The way 40 Meters has been going so long lately, that may end up being the band of choice.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Hi Larry, It was very annoying yesterday because I couldn't work JT65A and PSK31 on 40 and 20 meter because of RTTY stations all over the place. Even on a part of the phone frequencies. They don't respect band plans. 73 Paul
ReplyDeleteGood morning Larry I hear you about the conditions on 40 meters with the RTTY contest and all. I finally got WSPR to work on my K3. I only have a 20 meter and 40 meter dipole in the attic. Tried 40 WSPR and just was not working out. 20 was not to bad but only state side. I soon am getting a 30 meter dipole and that will help during contest season. Nothing against contest as I will be in the ARRL CW DX one next weekend. Have a good what is left of the weekend Larry....hope the recovery is coming along well.
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