Dear low-banders.
According to what the pilots said, this morning (03:00-06:00 UTC March 13) was
our last chance in Europe to get them on 80 and 160. As the pervious ights I
was on the bands at 03:00 UTC (subset Ducie), and jumped bands between 160
(1826.5 announced frequency), 3507 (announced QRG) and 3793. 160 was in pretty
good shape sudging the 599 sigs from TI5/AI5P, but QRN was MUCH higher than the
previous days, and the same was true for the US.
Around 05:00, by accident I tuned too low, and hear a pile-up just above 3502.
That could not be them, that's 5 kHz below the announced transmit frequency.
After a while I heard portions of their call, and lots of Europeans were
calling between 100 and 1000 Hz high, resulting in lots of QRM, key clicks etc.
Then came a spot in the cluster, which brought about the police in large
numbers. IK0MHR was one of them QRMing the frequency for a long time telling it
was a pirate etc...What a show! A few minutes lates I fortunately worked them,
and I have it on tape (hard disk, I mean..).
VP6DIA tried very hard and worked a good number of Europeans ranging from E.
Europe, over Italy to France. About 30 minutes later he disappeared.
I went to 1826.5, and fortunately I tuned around a little. Second later I
identified VP6DAI calling CQ on 1825.9. He was just about Q5. One call and he
came right back to me. Everything has been recorded. I did NOT spot him because
I did not want the same to happed what happened on 80m. For the next 10 minutes
I heard him calling CQ about 15 times. I heard him workiung one station in that
period: XQ6ET. Then he started going down with me (minutes from my sunrise) as
he wascalled by one or 2 G-stations. Then he disappeared.
I have anumber of snippets (sound wave files, most files about 100 k long,
totaling about 1.5 Mb). I do not have web site yet, but I will put them on
oour UBA (Belgian National Radio society) fior you to download.Go to www.uba.be
and select English Language, go to HF and click on the announcement at the
bottom of the page.
Your comments would be appreciated.
My sincere thanks to Jan, DJ8NK (European pilot) and Stu, WB2MOE (US pilot)
who insisted hard on them putting in an effort for Europe. Today's propagation
showed is is a very feasible path, and had they been on every day from the
start, they would have worked a great number.
John, ON4UN
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