High winds -- gusting over 50 mph -- woke me up early today, so I decided to
check the band for a few minutes. Still lots of QRN, but after a few CQs I
heard a weak JA6 calling me a bit before 1000z. Couldn't pull the call out.
Started to hear others calling but it was a struggle pulling even one letter
out of the noise. Decided against going back to bed, and finally JA7NI broke
through at 1017z, and for the next two hours we seemed to have a big pileup of
JA stations calling us, all right at the noise level. Late in the opening
JA4CQS and JA4CUU were the only two to clearly come out of the noise. One other
JA4 also was loud but the QSO was incomplete -- he may have been working
another station just below me. A JA7 was the last in the log at 1223z, just a
few minutes past my sunrise. I was still hearing JA stations around the band 15
minutes later.
In the end we had 13 QSOs with JA in the log. DU9/N0NM was on the band but we
never copied Jon. No sign of HL3IUA or the T88 stations.
At more than two and a half hours, this is the longest JA opening I've ever
experienced. I hope we will have quieter conditions the next time so we can put
more calls in the log!
Last night the high winds broke the rope catenary supporting the JA director on
the TX vertical array. Fortunately I was able to pull it back up and tie off to
a lower tree temporarily.
The phased JA 935-ft. Beverages (broadside spaced 175 feet) were the best
antenna for most of the opening, though in the last hour some signals peaked on
the West phased pair (broadside spaced 395 feet). Sometimes the TX array was a
very close second to these.
73/Jon AA1K
www.aa1k.us
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