I had a QSO with VU4NRO on PSK31 tonight on the longpath. If the station I
worked was actually VU4NRO, and I feel it was, then I made what could be the
greatest QSO in my 34 years of ham radio.
I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
I had my dial set at 14070.000 Khz USB starting at about 0001Z. At 0015Z I saw
a signal at about 935 hz (I use HamScope with the spectrum display) and printed
"VU" and knew right away it was probably him. I called simplex and he came back
to JA7UDE. At this time I had good copy, about 80% from VU4NRO. I saw both
VU4NRO and JA7UDE print. I called again. He came back to RA0FU. I could not
print RA0FU. I called simplex again. Then I saw him say "LISTENING 14080KHZ...
14080". So I went split on the radio, putting the other VFO at 14080 (audio
tone at the same 935 hz) and called him. He came back to me after a few calls
and gave me a 557 report but I did not see my call fully (only AA5A). I gave him
a 559 and asked to verify my call. He did and I got my call cleanly with
another 557 report and he asked me something I did not print. I think he asked
me to repeat my report which I did. Afterward, a couple of stations started
calling him simplex and I never printed him again. It's 3 hours later now and I
think he's still in there but I've not printed him.
He was using UPPER CASE. When I called him I used all lower case since lower
case is easier to decode. A couple of days ago I had sent a message to the
E-mail address on the website asking for RTTY longpath to NA and got a response
that it would be PSK31 (she didn't exactly say no RTTY, but I read between the
lines). Tonight I replied to that message from Sara, VU3SRB, requesting that
VU4NRO use all lower case to make it easier for us decode.
You can view a screenshot of my QSO at http://www.aa5au.com/vu4nro_qso.gif.
It's very difficult for me to offer suggestions but I will try. VU4NRO is the
only station operating PSK31 thus far. That's the station you need to look for.
Look for him during your opening. If you are in the USA, it's going to be
longpath if you are on the east coast, southeast, southwest or midwest. I
believe only the west coast and some upper midwest station have worked them on
SSB on the short path.
Watch the packetcluster. If VU4NRO is spotted consistently on SSB, then he's
probably not going to be on PSK31. I've not seen an instance yet where they
have two stations with the same call at two different frequencies.
LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN
If he is working simplex, which he did tonight for the first two stations, then
it's OK to call simplex. But he went split right away. His split was a little
strange because he said "14080" which means I had to split my VFO's instead of
doing it within the PSK program. I believe in the past he did not do this. So
this could be new.
If you are going to run high power, check your IMD with another station
beforehand like I did. I ran a KW from my PW-1 with a -18 db IMD reported back
to me but I felt that was OK for what I was trying to do. I had checked this a
few days ago.
Right now he's not using that 10 Khz split, but be aware it could happen. I'm
not sure what else to suggest but to keep after it like it was your 330th
country on digital - because it was for me!
73, Don AA5AU
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