Here is a reply to a
private message from K4BAI. Instead of sending a private reply, I
thought that the group might be interested in what the conditions on
the high bands were like during the GQP at my house in north Alabama.
Thanks John. I knew the GQP would be difficult from Alabama, but every
now and then I like a challenge. When using scatter as the mode on
the high bands, I was always at the bottom of the pile. I had to wait
until the pile was worked down before I got thru. I think I listened
to you going thru about 3 counties on 20 without a Q because the pile
never got low enough. There were similar situations with some of the
other mobiles. Signals were very weak from where you were located
(about a 300 mile path), although I could still copy you, thanks to an
almost zero noise level. And thanks for the 17 Q's. I also discovered
that I worked WA4YG on 20 meters who was running QRP. I don't think I
ever remember working a QRP station on scatter before. I do remember
he was pretty weak. (I did have a guy in Ohio call me on 40 meters
once during a contest with 13 milliwatts.) N4ZZ, W1NN, and K4R all had
good signals on 20 and they had good ears too. They were responsible
for many counties. The other mobiles were weaker but I could still
copy most of them. Getting them to hear me thru all the big signals
was the problem.
I don't know what the scatter mode was. Maybe a combination of many
things. The signal levels on 20 and 15 were pretty constant with very
little fading no matter the time of day, except every now and then the
level would jump up briefly, probably due to a plane flying over. All
Georgia stations sounded like they were going thru the aurora, but I
know that was not the path. The mobile stations were stronger when the
antenna was pointed at them and most of the fixed stations were
stronger when the antenna was pointed at 90 degrees to them. Those
fixed guys were probably using beams. I didn't hear anyone on 10
meters but I suspect that I could have worked stations on 10 also even
though the band was not open.
All contacts were CW. I didn't even listen for SSB. I figured that
was futile.
Equipment: 1500 watts to a 4 element SteppIR.
Jerry, K4SAV