Topband: Operations...

[Bill Cromwell]

On Thu, 2011-12-22 at 05:20 -0500, Jon Zaimes AA1K wrote:
> Since in Europe and Asia the band typically starts at 1810 kHz it's 
> possible those RBN's don't scan below there.
> 
> 73/Jon AA1K
> 

Hi Jon,

I tried again this morning from 11:00 Z for a little more than 15
minutes. I have been sending a long string..up to 10 CQs and signing
twice. I pause and tune a little up and down, sip my coffee, scratch the
dog's ears, and go again. I have it that "my" part of the band for
casual, non-DX ragchewing is that same bottom 10 kc of the band so
that's where I am trying. I try to get between 1808 and 1809. I can get
pretty close but I don't take amateur grade tuning dials too seriously -
except the xtal calibrator that keeps me inside the band. I check that
against WWV often. I believe this morning I was operating very close to
1808.5 kc but maybe it was only 1808.49213875 kc <wink>. QRN and
broadcast crud was around S4 this morning so weaker signals would have
been tough to dig out.

I haven't been hearing very much activity in the mornings. I did hear
some SSB further up the band and a W2 calling CQ for DX. I'm not DX for
him so I kept quiet. I was on last night too but not until after our
dinner party and it was almost 10 PM local time. Lots of hams in my
small propagation radius were likely already in bed. I will probably try
a little earlier in the evening when I can..maybe tonight. 

I'm rounding up parts for a Switching/patch panel so that I can change
my antenna from it's series configuration on 160 to L for 80 and 40.
It's cumbersome to make the change at the moment with lots of
opportunities for errors (Murphy ya know). I need to be able to change
that antenna more easily and also select different antenna and radio
combinations. I have a different receiver that stands up much better to
the broadcast band crud and I only need to make some wiring mods to
accommodate T/R switching.

Happy holiday season and Merry Christmas to all. I hope all of you are
enjoying your families and friends during this multiple holiday season.

73,

Bill  KU8H