40 Meters and 20 Meters were quite loud with neighborhood QRN - so 80 Meters was my refuge once again. Even so, it took me quite a while to get a QSO in. Activity seemed to be on the light side. Maybe the ionosphere is still a little bit hootsy from the CME the other day?
I ended up having a nice chat with Phil W8OZM from Willowick, Ohio. Willowick is between Erie. PA and Cleveland, Ohio - right close to the shores of Lake Erie. In about 20 minutes however, the band began to change and increased QRN and QRM on Phil's end cut our QSO short.
Speaking of QRN, Mike VE3WDM posted a YouTube video that he made on his blog. It shows the MFJ1026 noise cancelling unit in action. Watching and listening, it seems like Mike's situation is akin to what I am facing here. I will probably end up purchasing one of these units. Of course, the ideal solution is to find the offending device in the neighborhood and see if anything can be done, If it ends up being a plasma TV, like I think it is, I am wondering what the reaction would be on behalf of the owner. Up until a few years ago, if you knocked on a neighbor's door and politely explained the situation, you might get some help. These days, it seems that confrontation and anger are all the rage. Pardon the pun.
The reason I think it's a TV is that this noise on 40 Meters (and to a lesser degree on 20 Meters) seems to occur during "prime time" on a lot, but not all, weeknights; and usually when there's football on, on Sunday afternoons during football season. Saturday afternoons and weekday afternoons, right up until prime time, the bands are very usable here.
KX3 update - It was mentioned on the KX3 reflector that for the first few weeks, the pre-assembled units are going to get priority as far as shipping goes. So now I am thinking probably late March or early April before I see anything. I guess in the end, getting my order in within the first hour after orders were being accepted didn't mean as much as I thought it would. Oh well, it is what it is. Patience is a virtue - I keep reminding myself that! :)
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least.
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