What a difference

a week makes!

I'm talking of propagation and the 40 Meter Fox Hunt which occurred last night. I was tired after a long day at work, and I wasn't going to ...........but then my Polish stubbornness licked and I headed downstairs at about 8:45 PM.

I turned on HamClock (I don't like to leave computers plugged in and running while I'm not home)  and I saw that Dave AB9CA was spotted in the POTA box, so I tuned to the frequency and was able to hear him at about 449-559. He was in Oklahoma and after a few tries I was able to grant him a QSO towards his activation.

Was that a portent of things to come?  Sort of.

When the clock struck 0200 UTC, I was able to find Jim N0UR rather easily. I didn't even have to look for his pack of baying Hounds, He was in the clear and the Minnesota to New Jersey pipeline was in full function and I worked him at 0206 UTC. I went back and worked him a second time closer to 0300 UTC because for some reason, I wasn't showing up on the live QSO map that some of the Foxes use. A look at his log this morning confirmed the 0206 UTC QSO and he deleted the dupe. Sorry for that, Jim!

Randy NC4RT was a whole different story. I worked him last week when I was the Fox and he was the Hound, so I expected that would hold true last night. You know what they say about making assumptions.

I found the chasing Hounds easily enough at about 7.0325 MHz and tuned down 1 kHz, where I expected Randy to be. Nothing. I think I may have heard a whisper of him once, but that was probably just my mind playing tricks on me. What didn't help at all was a slow speed QRO rag chew taking place right on the frequency! I thought I might stand a chance when the rag chew was over, but the one station started calling CQ again, so I just gave up a little bit after 0300 UTC. I was beat and tired and I didn't think propagation was going to improve enough in the last 25 minutes to make it worth my while. BUT, before I left the shack, I did fire up RBN to see where Randy had planted himself and I was right! He was being spotted at 7.0315 MHz, just where I thought he'd be. I just couldn't hear him at all .......... and just last week he had a decent signal into NJ on 40 Meters. Go figure.

I've said this so many times that it shouldn't surprise me.  When you think you have this whole propagation thing figured out? Think again!

On another subject - I removed the little globe -visitor map widget from the right side of the page. They hadn't renewed their security certificate and Google Chrome (which I use) won't display it, so rather than leave a hole, I deleted it. When I get some time, I'll look for an alternative.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!