17 Meters was nice during lunchtime. I worked YU65GMN, which is in Serbia. I am wondering if with the "65" in the call sign, if this wasn't some kind of special event station.
Then I worked NP3CW a little farther up the band. I've worked Julio a couple of times before, and I just wanted to let him know his signal was loud.
The catch of the day would have been Madagascar. 5R8UI was very loud, and this may have been the first time I've ever heard Madagascar on the air, if memory serves me correctly. Even though he was very loud, my 5 Watts and my Buddistick were not equal to the task at hand ...... this time. Perhaps if I had more time, I would have snagged them. But not today.
So, what's life without goals, anyway?
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Hi Larry,
ReplyDeleteI've been in Madagascar for a year and for the first four months or so, all I had was my FT817 and the LNR trail-friendly end-fedz 10/20/40 (and at some point fashioned a 15/17 fan dipole). During that period, I had a handful of voice contacts, but almost a thousand QRP CW contacts including some to the US. I know some of those US QSOs were QRP/QRP, but when I've looked up those ops on qrz, I see that most of them had multi-element antennas. My K3 and additional equipment arrived later in the year, and I've now got a K3 feeding a hexbeam on a rotor. I'd be game to try a scheduled contact any time you or other QRP operators think conditions are rip -- I'm here at least another three years, so plenty of time to try. My limiting factor is local noise due to dirty power lines and lots of RF-emitting devices in my relatively high density neighborhood in the country's capital, Antananarivo.
Two other prospects for contacts here are Mike, 5R8UI, who you mentioned above, and Alain 5R8AL. Mike is located on Nosy Be, an island connected by Ferry to Madagascar and something of a resort location. He has better antennas and can run more power; I'd like to get up there sometime to see what the background noise is like. As for Alain, he's located in the area of the capital city, but further out than I am. Alain was away for a few months, but is now back in country. He is primarily a CW op, and I heard him a lot on 12m earlier in the year...back when there was 12m :-). If any of us pop up on RBN or clusters, give a call.
At some point, I'm hoping to get out and about to more remote locations on the island - my limiting factors are business trips that take me out of Madagascar and the weather here. From November to about March we have a rainy season, which turns roads to mud; we also have the occasional cyclone, so fingers are crossed for the long term health my hexbeam. If I do manage to take some field trips and get antennas up, I'll spot myself on qrpspots.
73,
Jack
5R8SV / AI4SV