[CQ-Contest] 40 LP Night One

[David L. Thompson]

At 04:47 PM 3/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 97-03-01 15:35:49 EST, kw4t at erols.com (Dan Weisenburger)
>writes:
>
><< BYW  how can a KW be 30 over s9 but unable to hear me at all????
> I should be 10 to 20 over with only 10 dB less signal.  I really like to
> know the straight skinny on this one, and it seemed to be everywhere.
> 
> I checked the antenna this afternoon and all seems well.  >>

Thats 40 (and 80 and 160) for you.  I have a beam and found conditions to be
down some..the biggest thing I noticed is the lack of weaker EU sigs last
nite.  I worked across the band twice and worked 44 EU, 5 AF, 23 NA, and 14
SA.  I heard KH6 but did not turn my beam altho I did work AH8A..this is in
just over 1 hour.  I listened to one of the big guns and it seemed like the
number of returns they got over 15 minutes was slim (5 or 6)..and these EU
were only S5 or 6.  Loudest EU was 10DB over 9 (3 stations).

I have an 80 meter loop and 100 watts when I operate from St. Simons Island,
Georgia (NA058 for IOTA).  I hear EU loud on 40 but can only work about 50%
as I am buried in the BC QRM.  Its 85% on CW so its just QRM that we get
lost in...

160 was so noisy that only loud sigs even made it thru on my receiving
loops.  You would call a loud HB9 and static crashes would wipe out the freq
for 30 or 40 seconds.  Just as a test I put on the MULTEE I use and the QRN
was 40DB over 9 with 15DB being the min.  I did work 24 stations
including 6 in EU (HB9RG was loud)in 2 hours.

Low band means patience!!!!   Even from a big gun station you can get bored
with endless unanswered CQ's.

Dave K4JRB



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