I hadn’t plan to participate in the Spring Stew but went to the station this
weekend to prepare for WPX later this month. Testing out DXLog and a SunSDR2
PRO transceiver I decided to make a few contacts just to see in what shape the
band was. At 2250 I found NP2X and logged him quite easily using 800 watt, but
then it wasn’t much of interest around so i continued with other things. A
little later just after 0030 I decided to listen around again. I found Herb
KV4FZ calling on 1818 but he was quite weak, so I didn’t bother. I was getting
tired so I killed the power to the amp and left the shack to go to sleep. Back
in the house I realised I forgot my phone charger in the shack and went out
again to get it. Through the headphones on the desk I heard someone working
Herb who now had popped out from the noice, he was 559-579 on my N/W pennant. I
powered up the OM amp again and starting to tap my fingers on the table waiting
anxiously for the thing to heat up. 180 long seconds… about 100 seconds in I
hit F4 and sent a call once, just to make sure the TX antenna switches we are
lined up and ready. About 15 watt barefoot from the SunSDR2 PRO. Bam! Herb came
back to me in an instant with no hesitation.
15 watt, 8000 km! That was magic, it made the weekend for me! Unfortunately the
other eight contacts logged where high power, otherwise the km/watt average
would have been great.
73 de Björn,
SM0MDG
SE0X
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