Turned on the K3's afterburner to 80 Watts in order to work TX5K on Clipperton and TZ6BB in Mali.
This was the first time I have ever heard Mali on the air. My concern was to just get them in the log. He was very loud on 17 Meters. Afterwards, I did one of those "V-8 forehead slaps", thinking that he may have been loud enough to work QRP.
I could have tried again at 5 Watts, but somehow it didn't seem "quite cricket" to try and work them again on the same band so soon.
I heard TX5K again a bit later, and almost as loud on 12 Meters. I tried for a while to break the pileup, but my 5 Watts wasn't up to it. I will have to try later this week. If conditions keep up like they were today, I should be able to snag them again on 17 Meters via QRP. Patience and persistence will be the key.
I also began working on my PigRig while monitoring the pileups for TX5K. I got all the parts inventoried (yes, everything was there) and got the first few resistors soldered in before I had to step out for a while. Serial #81 is slowly coming to life!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Good job, Larry - especially with Mali...a darn good catch.
ReplyDeleteGood morning Larry, I had seen them spotted while on the radio on Sunday. They were just above the noise level up this way, so I kept the headphones on and listened as I did other things. It turned out they just got closer and closer to the noise level until they were gone. Oh well going to give it a go again this week. Congrats on making contact with them.
ReplyDeleteMike