Last night's 80 Meter QRP Fox hunt was a tough go. I finally managed to nab Randy NC4RT in North Carolina for a single pelt. Dave K5IX in Texas was a mere whisper, although my relatively close by neighbor Steve WX2S managed to squeak in a QSO in the closing minutes of the hunt.
QSB was tough, rapid and fluttery, and there was a low, whooshing noise across a part of the band that made things very difficult. I'm not sure whether that was just local noise or some kind of over the horizon radar; but it was not pleasant to deal with. I thank God for the Butternut, as it allowed me to snag the pelt. Going against conventional wisdom, the vertical was giving me less noise than the horizontal wire!
Unfortunately, I think we have a few more years of this before things get better. Maybe Santa will bring us some sun spots if we're all good Amateur Radio ops?
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least1
Spent a few hours on 10m for the ARRL 10m contest.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard conditions on 10m so bad. I didn't even hear any South American stations on yesterday afternoon.