Of late I have been focusing a bit on working Europe on the WARC bands to close the gap on Worked All Europe first class award (WAE I). I have also boosted the numbers slightly on 40m. JT65 has made it possible to work pretty reliably into EU most days and evenings on 30 or 17. While experimenting with WSJT-X 1.1 this weekend, I finally saw Cliff VK2CCJ working KH6OO on JT9 in the 12m band. We eventually connected with this exciting new mode.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The Summer Wraps Up
Snow today for the first time since May 23. It was a short summer. Leaves and ground cover are in full blaze of yellow, orange, and red. The contrast of snow on dark spruce and low-hanging clouds ringing the hills made for a dramatic landscape. Alas, antenna season wanes quickly. A 40 meter vertical project hangs in the balance.
Living for much of the summer under threat of wildfires, the station has been largely pieced back together. A full multi-2 is nearly 100% functional.
The rig has been on quite a bit lately monitoring JT-65A on the low bands. I have been using JT65-HF for ages, but recently found WSJT-X 1.1 works faster and decodes more effectively on my slow XP PC.
John AL7ID, who lives just a few miles east of KL2R, put up a full-size 160m loop around his property. Comparisons on the various bands has been interesting. The 30m band has outstanding worldwide coverage much of the day now, and 40 has had some strong nights for DX. A61BK was even heard here at midday on a dipole, which was totally anomalous. 160 yields the Lower 48 as sunrise moves across the US, and 80 has been marginal most evenings.
Nearly two weeks ago I was in Anchorage re-building KL7SB's shack with a complete Elecraft K3 line and Microham MK2R+ SO2R box. I will do it again in a few days. Given the uncertainty of the 40m project at home, I might as well do something useful.
John AL7ID, who lives just a few miles east of KL2R, put up a full-size 160m loop around his property. Comparisons on the various bands has been interesting. The 30m band has outstanding worldwide coverage much of the day now, and 40 has had some strong nights for DX. A61BK was even heard here at midday on a dipole, which was totally anomalous. 160 yields the Lower 48 as sunrise moves across the US, and 80 has been marginal most evenings.
Nearly two weeks ago I was in Anchorage re-building KL7SB's shack with a complete Elecraft K3 line and Microham MK2R+ SO2R box. I will do it again in a few days. Given the uncertainty of the 40m project at home, I might as well do something useful.
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