I know that I am myself guilty of not following procedure, with the end result of me muttering swear words under my breath every time I have to untangle my Dacron rope supply. Thanks, Scott W3GTR for the excellent photos!
My instincts for last night's 40 Meter Fox Hunt proved to be true (for once)! I found Steve WD4CFN's Hounds rather easily, went down 1 kHz and was able to hear him amongst the "CQ NA"s that were in plenteous supply - I'm guessing last night was the NAQCC monthly Sprint? Anyway, as I was saying, I found Steve rather easily, but he kept fading in and out. He would be strong for a few minutes and then fade to ESP for a few minutes and back and forth, and back and forth. On a peak, i worked him at 02:28 UTC, 559 both ways.
John AJ1DM was just as I expected. I found "a" Hound calling him and again, went down 1 kHz and listened and heard nothing. In order to not make the same mistake I made last week, I then went back up that 1 kHz, just in case John was working simplex. Nothing there either, so I pulled the plug so I could get some shuteye.
Looking at his log this morning, the closest state to me on the East coast that John worked was North Carolina. It was obvious that his RF was flying as high overhead over New Jersey as these storied drones (which I have not seen) are. And I was surprised to see that neither Jack N2RK or Tom KV2X in NY had worked John. Those two guys must have amazing antenna systems because it seem like they work everyone - sometimes being the only East coasters to make it into a Fox's log.
Once again last night, my weapon from the antenna quiver was my vertical, my Butternut HF9V. Steve WD4CFN's signal was the same 559 on the EFRW and the vertical, but the vertical was not picking as much background noise as the wire was.
The weather for NJ today will be on the warm side with a high in the low 60s. We'll get some drought busting rains with 2 - 3 inches expected between today and tomorrow. We'll still come up short rain-wise for the year, but at least the wildfire/brushfire danger is now pretty much over. We're also expecting some pretty ferocious wind gusts later today and tonight. I hope the outdoor Christmas decorations don't take flight!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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