So far, 40 minutes into the Thursday night QRP Foxhunt, 40 Meters is behaving itself. Or rather, I would probably be more accurate in saying that whichever neighbor has the appliance that gives me the horrible QRN is more than likely not home this evening. My noise level on 40 Meters tonight is only 1 or 2 bars on the K2's S Meter, which is probably normal for just about anywhere else on the planet.
I was able to work Lee AA4GA with relative ease. Jim K9JWV in Utah is going to be another matter altogether. Right now, he's about 339 and most of the Hounds working him are much louder than he is. Jim is working simplex at this point, so it's real easy to hear both sides of the exchanges. I don't know if his signal is going to come up much. If it doesn't, I'll be real surprised to nab him tonight.
Oh well, if I have no luck, maybe I'll go onto Hulu.com to watch a few episodes of "The Rifleman".
Addendum: With 10 minutes to go in the hunt, Jim K9JWV's signal really started to come up. I tried a couple more times with the EDZ with no luck. I switched over to the HF9V and got picked up on the second try. Almost forgot to try switching antennas!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry - I notice that you have the KAF2 audio filter installed on your K2. I'm thinking of getting it for my K2 and was wondering how effective you think it is? I like tuning a CW signal that peaks noticeably within the passband of a receiver, and I'm also hoping that it will help to a certain extent with noisy bands.
ReplyDeleteAnyway - just wondering what your impressions are of the KAF2.
Dave
AA7EE
Dave,
ReplyDeleteI find it's value questionable, at least for me. It suppresses some noise; but I don't get that "pop out of the starkness" feature that I think you and I are both looking for. The built in crystal filters do a much better job of isolating a signal.
You might want to consider perhaps a NE QRP Club SCAF filter. I think it's a better value.
Larry W2LJ
Thanks for the honest feedback Larry. I am used to the audio response of my Norcal 2N2 and notice that when 40M is noisy, the band noise is much quieter on the 2N2 than the K2. I'm assuming this is because the 2N2 audio chain is tailored specifically for CW, whereas the K2's has to allow for SSB also.
ReplyDeleteYour suggestion of an outboard SCAF is a good one. Looks like another kit is in my immediate future.
Does the experimentation aimed towards bettering our stations never end? I guess not!