I see on the QRP Foxhunt reflector, that Charles W2SH bagged both Foxes tonight. Since Charles is less than 20 miles from me (as the crow flies) chances are pretty good that I might have done as well.
IF I DIDN'T HAVE S9 NOISE ON 40 METERS, THAT IS!
Just my luck! The last few evenings, 40 Meters has been quiet and enjoyable. But tonight, which is Foxhunt night, whatever neighbor is using whatever RFI producing monster, just had to turn it on tonight! From 9:00 PM to well past 10:30, 40 Meters wasn't even listenable (new word, courtesy of W2LJ).
So just how does one go about finding the offending appliance; and on top of that, tactfully tell the owner that their device is killing the heck out of my radio? And could you please turn off that Plasma TV that you took out a second mortgage to buy? Yeah ...... right. The snowball stands a better chance.
Thank God for 80 Meters! The noise is there, too; but maybe at an S1 level. The problem was that 80 Meters was very dead tonight. A few signals; but nothing to write home about. After tuning through the band and alternately calling CQ here and there; I finally nabbed a short QSO after about an hour.
I have to admit, I got a nice 589 report. The QSO was going pretty well until I happened to mention that I was using a K2. Then all of a sudden, the other Ham was plagued by QRN and QRM and was having a tough time copying me. Gee, he had one of them fancy IC-756 Pro IIs. I thought those had all those fancy filters and stuff that helps in situations like these. Guess I thought wrong.
Or it could have been a simple case of QRPhobia. Where the receiving station develops a tin ear as soon as they come to believe that the sending station might be using something less than 100 Watts. I've seen many cases of that, over the years.
Sorry for the rant, folks. Still not feeling 100% - guess I'm just cranky tonight.
73 de Larry W2LJ
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