Final Fling with KL7RA

All credits to Wigi AL7IF and Rich's XYL Jyl for supporting one last hoorah for KL7RA on the air.  

The team converged on Kenai on Good Friday from literally around the globe.  Ed K3PN flew in from South Africa via Denver, in a blizzard.  Others converged from points around Alaska to re-connect, make new friendships, and memorialize Rich in the best possible way.   Wigi and Angela came down from Anchorage several days before to prepare.  The Kenai crew of AL2F, KL2HD, and KL8X were there for the duration, as were KL7SB, WL7BDO, and N1TX. Dan KL1JP flew down from Fairbanks for two hours operating on Saturday, cut short by weather delays. Corliss AL1G showed up noon-ish Sunday and worked the final four hours on 20. 

You can find Wigi's summary here on 3830: http://3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=5EaEz8gcfssv8 

It pretty well sums up the great emotions we all shared by activating KL7RA one last time.  

The gravity didn't really start hitting home with me until 1200Z Sunday.  I had avoided focusing on it.  I was working the overnight shift with WL7BDO on 20 and chipping away at 160m.  Rich was always THE top band guy, and there I was at the position with his hat and glasses in front of me.  I answered a call, and another fine op gave me the exchange and said what a wonderful thing it was we were doing.

Then I moved over to 40m.  As long as I knew him, Rich had an autographed photo of Joe Rudi NK7U in his Oakland A's uniform, and it was on the wall right in front of me.  I heard NK7U around 1400Z and called.  It took quite a few times yelling back and forth to finally get through.  "KL7?"  "KL7A?" back and forth.  When he finally got the RA, there was an awkward pause.  The band gods cooperated long enough to clear the freq.  The op (not Joe) and I had a brief conversation, both of us very, very moved.  I fought the tears.  I couldn't do anymore and went to bed.

After the contest was over, we went upstairs and shared a few Rich stories, then Skyped with Rich's widow Jyl.  She was in Indiana.  We offered a toast, and let me tell you, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.  The remainder of the evening was spent celebrating a remarkable life and legacy.  It was a memorial I will never forget.  

With Gary AL9A now gone as well as Rich, those of us remaining have more incentive to get KL on the air.  There will be no more huge beacon like KL7RA, but we can try to hold a candle in the cold and dark left behind.

ARRL DX CW 2016

Steve KL7SB and Wes WL7F joined me (N1TX) to form a pretty potent multi-single team at KL2R. Band conditions were really good, especially considering how iffy things were in the weeks and days prior.  In fact, it's safe to say propagation was so good at times the team's capacity to log was nearly saturated.  A big surprise was the solid-rate openings on 40m. The phased verticals worked stupendously.  The final claimed score bested a 2014 SO effort (N1TX) by about 350 QSOs and 100k points.

One of several highlights was working Phil AK7DD (ex-KL8DX), who now resides in Oregon. Check out his QRP activity (with an indoor antenna) here. He works us at around 5:30 into the video.

Score Summary

 Band     QSOs     Pts  Sec

   3.5      25      75   16

     7     489    1461   55

    14     636    1908   52

    21     781    2343   57

    28     104     312   22

 Total    2035    6099  202

Score: 1,231,998

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.