Another frustrating morning on 160: BOTH 9M2AX and DU7ET CQing
endlessly; I don't think either worked any west coasters, tho. I first
heard either starting around 1400Z after I woke up and turned on the
radio and amp: 9M2AX on 1821.5 listening up 2, DU7ET on 1820.5 simplex,
neither hearing me, nor apparently AA6AA, KL7KY (who only called DU7ET,
that I heard of), nor apparently W7RH. The noise levels at the DX guys'
must be pretty bad. In general, once the sun comes up and illuminates
the desert floor here, it's all over for me, which is right around 1445Z
at present. DU7ET is still in there as of 1515Z but becomes way too weak
to call after about 1445Z.
9M2AX is typically an easy Q5, S1 to S7, usually S3 to S5. DU7ET, when I
chased him last week, peaked an astounding S7 at one time but this
morning, was down a bit at no more than a max of S5 a couple times,
usually S3, but mostly Q5.
KL7KY was a strong S7 to S9 whenever I heard him, far stronger than I've
ever heard KL7SB. The other day, I CQed while running just 100W, and was
called by KL7QOW, whom I've never worked before. We had a good QSO; Mike
was S3 to S5, peaking at S7 near the end.
These "S-readings" are actually all "S-hearings", what I perceive folks
to be by ear compared to the noise floor. My S-meter is a bit stingier
than that, of course.
Last Friday morning, 9M2AX almost copied me but not quite: at various
times, he got an X, then later he got a zero; but he just couldn't
string them into anything coherent to his ears. Although we've worked on
a higher band or two at some time, he doesn't know my call so he's not
familiar with what I sound like. That's why I've been mixing up my
calling schemes: calling him a couple times, or maybe four times, fast,
slow, and sometimes interspersing his own call in there just so he might
make out the rhythms of morish-code characters and thus make sense of
callsign characters. To date, no dice 8-(
Both will be a new one for me on 160m, when (or if) I ever work em.
Ifn I can get up the gumption, I'm gonna try laying out a few more
radials today on the north side of my existing fence, in an effort to
get my inv L impedance closer so I don't have to waste a few hunnerd
watts in the antler tuner (the dang thang gets hot enuf that I've had to
put a muffin fan on the roller inductor at my old QTH!). At present, I'm
only using the north face of a 125-foot-square chainlink fence as my
counterpoise, which, of course, ain't zactly cricket for an efficient
radiator; but it's worked pretty well for working a lotta DX so far from
this QTH. This morning, I dared run my drive up high enough to get 1300
watts output, which results in over 170 amperes of current drawn by my
12 DC to 120 VAC sinewave inverter, uncomfortably close to the 300 amp
battery fuse rating; but the cheap fuse holder gets hot enough to melt
the plastic at anything over 200 amps, despite its 300A rating. I'm
entirely off-the-grid here in the hi desert, so am always happy to see
the sun, and no, or at least very thin, clouds 8-D
73,
Steve K0XP
DM24ad
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