I received a fax from YK1AO today, 11/30, dated 11/27. He found the
problem with his Gladiator vertical. He placed torroids on the feedline
at the base of the vertical and now he has a very low SWR from 1825 to
1835. He says he will be on regularily 03-04+ GMT and will QSX up or down
2-5 khz for NA. However he did not follow this pattern last nite as he
was on 1828 for over an hour and never gave any QSX freqs and although
he did call CQ NA various times he never heard any of the loud NA
stations calling him. ie W8JI, N4 SU, K3UL, etc. He did QSO quite a
number of Eu's straight up. In his defense the conditions were not good
and he was much weaker than he had been the nights he was on 1995. I
believe on a good night he will have a really good signal as he has
1500 watts output
from a Alpha 89. He realizes it was largely US stations who paid for
his antenna system so he is trying hard to work us. If we are patient we
will succeed. In the meantime I will coach him the best I can.
Hopefully he will develop into the polished topband operator that Jon,
3DA0CA did! Good luck everyone and a special thanks to all you guys and
gals who helped put Syria on topband for the first time ever by a native
operator! Omar sez that a group from Calif will probably stage another
DXpedition in early 99 so this is another possibility for whatever
bands/modes you may need. 73 Bob W4DR
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