On Wed,2/24/2016 9:00 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
I don't understand what is going
on here. A pacific island should be a chip
shot from the left coast.
Nor do I. Perhaps a poor TX antenna -- vertical with no radials? Maybe
low power? Something caused them to not be on the band at their sunset.
They did a self spot around 0515Z saying they would be on in an hour,
but no spots at all until about 1000Z or later. I went into the shack to
listen, nothing, no trace, no signal, no callers. They had QSYed to a
higher band. I QSYed back to bed. Nature called around 1330Z, I looked
to see spots, and headed for the shack. I heard occasional callers and
saw spots about LOUD, bu it was more than 45 minutes before I saw a
faint trace, another 10 minutes to be able to hear CW, then ten minutes
later, enough to copy. One call and they came back.
One thing they clearly don't get about 160, and to a lesser extent, 80,
is the spotlight nature of propagation, and that they need to be there
from before sunset to after sunrise to catch everyone who wants to work
them. It seems that when things slowed down, they QSYed to a higher band.
And yes, that guy who didn't know how to use the radio, QSYing up and
down the band for every caller, was on 160 the night before, as
indicated by spots from JA. Luckily, the op who was on this morning did
know how to use the radio. :)
73, Jim K9YC
_________________
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
|