I must admit to be recovering some from the Stew and haven't been able to
get up out of bed as early this morning. However, I noticed SM5EDX was
working some guys this morning and K7TJR was acting as a beacon from Oregon.
Last night - I finally heard 4O3A for the first time - near his sunrise.
However, I wasn't able to raise him for a QSO before he QSY'd to 20 meters.
I am hoping to put that one in the log soon.
And I must confess - I feel like I have "cheated" getting a new country
last night. I had noticed the activity patterns of JD1BMM on 160 meter
had been rather erratic. I used to have a feature in TR Log where I could
put a list of countries I needed into a file - and if a packet spot for
that country was made - it would sound an alarm and wake me up. Except,
TR Log really isn't able to hook up to packet anymore without a lot of
extra work.
After some searching on the internet, I downloaded the VE7CC program - which
was pretty easy to setup. A nice female voice will announce "Here is the DX
you are looking for". So - last night at 0916z, JA1DUH spotted JD1BMM on
160 meters. I tuned into the frequency to hear - nothing... but after a
bit - I started hearing someone sending 579 rising up out of the noise.
It turns out that was a JA station sending his report to JD1BMM - who then
came back and sounded like a KH6 - very loud. He was easy to put into the
log and I went back to bed a few minutes later... wondering if it all was
too easy. This is almost the last country in the Pacific that I need. I
think Chesterfield and that funny one that you have to operate from with
platforms are the last two.
I received several nice notes from stations I worked during the Stew. I
already shared the audio RA4LW sent me - but I just got one from Zdenek,
OK1DSZ, who was operating as OL0W during the Stew. This recording really
demonstrates the "charm" of topband - where patience is rewarded. Not only
did he have to deal with QSB, a burst of loud QRN that would have pushed
most people to just give up - but he also had OM5ZW very close to my
frequency.
Just before we made our QSO - you can hear me tune up briefly. This is a
very rewarding part of the recording for me - as the reason I am tuning up
is that I switched on my parasitic reflector for Europe and repeaked the
amp since the match changes pretty significantly. I think it is clear
that the extra few db that added made the QSO much more possible.
http://www.kkn.net/~tree/160/k7rat_at_ol0w_stew2008.wav
You can sort of see this reflector in this recent photo. It is a wire tee
element coming off of a 105 foot tower. It is being pulled tight by the
rope that comes over the upper left corner of the photo.
http://www.kkn.net/~tree/gallery/album26/Snow_December_2008_018
I use a relay to switch this element in and out. It is about 90 feet
south of the driven element.
It should be noted that had OL0W not called me a few times, the QSO might
never had happened. I have 5 different directions I can receive and I
often have band openings to 4 of them - and sometimes all 5. If you just
send you call once and don't get my attention, you do need to perhaps send
it a couple of times if I am CQing in your face. This allows me to have
enough time to cycle through my antennas to find you. Add the QSB variable
and the possibility that a louder local station is calling - and it adds
up to a difficult challenge. The better operators will hear you calling
even when a strong station is there - and work extra hard to pull you
through.
For me - the fact that putting up extra wires and a mile of radials - and
using good operating technique - which makes the "impossible" QSOs happen
are part of the charm of this band we call Topband. I have been doing
this for some 23 years now - and I am as fired up about it as I ever have
been. I look forward to doing it for another 23 years.
73 Tree N6TR
Boring, OR
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