TopBand: YK1AO

[w4dr@mindspring.com]

I received a fax from  YK1AO today, 11/30,  dated 11/27.  He found the
problem with  his Gladiator vertical.   He placed torroids  on the feedline
at the base of the vertical  and now he has a very low SWR  from  1825  to
1835.  He says he will be on regularily  03-04+ GMT  and will QSX up or down
2-5 khz for NA.  However he did not follow this pattern  last nite  as he
was on 1828  for over an hour and never  gave any QSX  freqs  and although
he did call  CQ NA  various times  he never heard any of the loud  NA
stations  calling him.  ie  W8JI, N4 SU,  K3UL, etc.  He did  QSO quite a
number  of  Eu's  straight up.  In his  defense the conditions were not good
and he was much weaker than he had  been  the nights he was on 1995.  I
believe on a  good  night  he will  have  a really good signal as he has
1500 watts output
from a Alpha 89.  He  realizes it was largely US stations who paid for
his antenna system so he is trying hard to work us.  If we are patient  we
will  succeed.   In the meantime   I will coach him the best I can.
Hopefully he will develop into the polished topband operator that Jon,
3DA0CA did!  Good luck everyone and a special thanks to all you  guys and
gals who helped put Syria on topband for the first time ever by a native
operator!  Omar sez that a group from Calif will probably stage another
DXpedition in early 99 so this is another possibility for whatever
bands/modes you   may need.  73 Bob W4DR


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