Here is a reply to a private message from K4BAI. Instead of sending a
private reply, I thought that the group might be interested in what the
conditions on the high bands were like during the GQP at my house in
north Alabama.
Thanks John. I knew the GQP would be difficult from Alabama, but every
now and then I like a challenge. When using scatter as the mode on the
high bands, I was always at the bottom of the pile. I had to wait until
the pile was worked down before I got thru. I think I listened to you
going thru about 3 counties on 20 without a Q because the pile never got
low enough. There were similar situations with some of the other
mobiles. Signals were very weak from where you were located (about a
300 mile path), although I could still copy you, thanks to an almost
zero noise level. And thanks for the 17 Q's. I also discovered that I
worked WA4YG on 20 meters who was running QRP. I don't think I ever
remember working a QRP station on scatter before. I do remember he was
pretty weak. (I did have a guy in Ohio call me on 40 meters once during
a contest with 13 milliwatts.) N4ZZ, W1NN, and K4R all had good signals
on 20 and they had good ears too. They were responsible for many
counties. The other mobiles were weaker but I could still copy most of
them. Getting them to hear me thru all the big signals was the problem.
I don't know what the scatter mode was. Maybe a combination of many
things. The signal levels on 20 and 15 were pretty constant with very
little fading no matter the time of day, except every now and then the
level would jump up briefly, probably due to a plane flying over. All
Georgia stations sounded like they were going thru the aurora, but I
know that was not the path. The mobile stations were stronger when the
antenna was pointed at them and most of the fixed stations were stronger
when the antenna was pointed at 90 degrees to them. Those fixed guys
were probably using beams. I didn't hear anyone on 10 meters but I
suspect that I could have worked stations on 10 also even though the
band was not open.
All contacts were CW. I didn't even listen for SSB. I figured that was
futile.
Equipment: 1500 watts to a 4 element SteppIR.
Jerry, K4SAV
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