Propagation

Pretty bad …

I managed to get on last night for a while after I got home from Choir practice … pretty bad. I made a couple of contacts, both in Oklahoma on 40m JT-9. I did start a QSO with a station in Arizona, but he disappeared on me about halfway through the exchange. Eighty meters had some CW action going on, but I didn’t hear much on digital. My noise level on 80 is pretty high … I really need to see where that’s coming from. Twenty meters was dead, except for a few weak CW stations.

This weekend is the ARRL Sweepstakes, but I don’t think I will have the time to invest. I have quite a few other irons in the fire that I can’t put off, so I think I’ll sit this one out. PLUS, I’m on call for work. NEXT weekend, though, I’ll be there for the CQ WW CW test.

73 de Dick N4BC

Some CW Action this evening

I’ve had some luck this evening working CW. There were some pretty strong signals coming out of the Caribbean and Central America … ZF2, HR9, PJ4 … etc. They were working pileups (mostly into Europe with some North Americans – me being one of those). All good operators, and just knocking them off, one after another. Not the most leisurely QSOs … more “Slam, Bam, Thank you Ma’am”. BUT … a contact in the log on an otherwise poor evening is a contact in the log!

Had a little lightning and thunder in the area this evening, too. I would think that as cool as it was today, that’s unusual.

Our repeater trustee wants me to give him some help setting up and interfacing our new Yaesu Fusion repeater with our RLC-2 Controller this weekend, so I guess I will give him a hand with that. We’re finally getting it installed SOON, I hope. Seems like it’s been forever since we lost our old tower site.

73 de Dick N4BC

Looking Up …

Things were good … things were poor. I tuned the bands tonight and didn’t find much action on CW or Digital. Twenty was pretty much dead, but Forty and Eighty showed a little life. I had several contacts into Canada on 80M and a couple of statesiders on 40M. Both bands had quite a bit of QRN – not sure if it’s man-made or natural, but it was prettty high on the S-meter. JT mode is about the only mode where I call CQ. I figure if he can hear me well, we’ve got a better chance of a QSO.

In any case, I did make some contacts and I guess I should be happy about that. The Solar forecast is only FAIR for those bands, and with my antennas … . Any time you can put something into the log is a winner, right?

73 de Dick N4BC

CQWW SSB

Well … that certainly was a sucky weekend, propagation-wise. I didn’t have a chance to get on Sunday, but I certainly had no luck on Saturday. Not one of the better efforts on my part.

Sunday, the XYL and I went over to the eastern Shore of Virginia (about an hour and a half drive via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel) to attend a choral concert. The daughter had a solo … WOW! Can that girl sing! Very proud parents. She’s a member of the choral group at Virginia Wesleyan College, where she’s a Junior.

I’ve gotten on the past couple of evenings to work some JT QSOs, and have had some interesting contacts, but even there, activity is a bit light. All I can do is keep on trying … that’s all any of us can do. Even the CW pickings have been slim.

Well, so much for my musings. I’ve got a radio club meeting tonight, and may get a bit of operating in before that, but I’ll have to see how that goes.

73 de Dick N4BC

A New One!

Scored a new country on digital last evening … South Africa. Ten watts to a vertical on JT-9 mode. He copied me at -15 DBm on 20 meters, and he was much stronger. I’ve seen him on several times before, but had no luck connecting with him. Now just waiting for a LOTW confirmation.

The bands were not especially hot last night … as a matter of fact, there was not much happening other than stateside and European stations. But there he was … and relatively strong, too. That’s what’s so exciting about ham radio. “The thrill of the hunt,” if you like.

I’ve tried listening in the early morning to see what might be happening, but no luck so far. For instance, this morning at 4am I tuned the bands and heard ZILCH! Not so much as a stray CW signal that was readable. I’ll keep on trying, though. One of these days …

73 de Dick N4BC