Yeah, well, THAT sucked. 98 QSOs in six hours of operating. My objective was 100. 40m never really opened. I was happy to make a few Q's on 15m. The rest were, of course, on 20m. The Kp and aurora were giving KL2R fits. On the DMU-2000, I could watch the signals peak and dip in a rhythm almost sea-sickness-inducing. Bang, bang: make four or five Q's in a spurt, then nothing for 15 minutes. Typical for Fairbanks.
I can understand why all the real contesters beat feet south as soon as they could.
Yep, dismal for sure and I just could not stay indoors when the outdoors was so nice.
ReplyDeleteWe have been at home in Anderson with its poor antennas and summer radio doldrums for so many years, that it is unusual for us to be here in California at this time.
ReplyDeleteWe have been experiencing numerous multiple hop sporadic E events on 50 MHz. We have worked KP4 and much of the East coast, and have heard JA's on CW coming in just above the noise.
We had a fabulous Forth of July at the house with twenty-six hams helping out with an old fashoned antenna raising and barbecue.
Our new M2 twenty meter monobander went up on the tower in about an hour and a half, despite the chilly coastal breeses and fog. At one point it was difficult to see the ground crew from the top of the tower! As the weather warmed, we broke out the food and a few 807's.
The four element monobander and 100 watts is working well. Luci is racking up lots of DX, now that a wire antenna is a thing of the past. Luci had fun in the IARU test as well.
Sadly, our large remodeling project has kept us very busy down here. It means that we are starting to run out of summer, so it will be next spring before we can return to Anderson.
73, from the redwood forest of Northern W6,
Ken & Luci