6m propagation today
Sorry for the wrong date yesterday. I made the post after midnight and so I made a mistake. Todays propagation was a lot worse. Only XV9T Eddy from Vietnam was heard.
It seems that whenever there is F2 propagation Eddy can be heard in Europe. Strange no other station has been heard DX wise. Eddy must have a very good location, antenna and enough power.
International Beacon Project
OZ9QV Jan wrote about an encounter he had with a beacon that not belonged on 28.200MHz. It seems that this is the frequency the NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Project uses since the seventies of last century. Have I ever heard of it. Oh yes probably, but forgot about it as well. I did a search on the internet to see what it is all about. Pretty interesting, you can do al kind of experiments with it as well if you like. Find a lot of info on
the IPB website. I decided to take a look on 28.200 CW today to see what I could receive and compare it to the propagation forecast found on the site.
Between 12:45-12:48 UTC I received 4U1UN with all 4 tones, 4X6TU with 3 tones, CS3B with 2 tones, LU4AA with 1 tone and OA4B with one tone. Propagation forecast was S2 for all except OA4B the forecast was S1. 4S7B forecast was also S2 but not heard. My receive antenna was the gainmaster halfwave on top of my tower. I did another receive at 16:08 UTC, now ZS6DN was heard with 1 tone, CS3B with 3 tones and LU4AA with 3 tones. Not a bad result.
CW contact
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| Photo found on Pinterest |
Once and a while when I feel to do so I turn my dail and wander over the 10m band. Now I learn CW I really want to be able to make QSOs. But most CW I hear is way too fast for me and still is unreadable without the help of a computer, something I don't want. I want to do it like in the old days when CW was the way to communicate for HAMs. When listening today I finally found a station that did send slow enough CW for me. But it was hard to copy, he was probabely using a straight key. Even after 5 times CQ I came not further as CQ POTA DE KB2. So I remembered POTA stations most time spot themselves on a POTA site. I quickly found the site to cheat a little and found the correct call. It was KB2GKC from US-10044
Hyde Hall Historic Site. Now it was time to try calling him. But first of all I wrote down what I would send to him because I was afraid I would be forgetting what to do and panic. So I wrote down GA TU 599 BK and hoped he would only send his report as well. To finish I would send BK PE4BAS TU 73. Hope that it was correct? This is what I came up with after looking at some POTA videos in the past. So, there it goes I did send my call with 18wpm, but KB2GKC struggled with my call and I had to repeat it several times before he got it. Not easy because even sending my call is not even easy for myself :-). But I kept to the script and finished the contact. Hopefully I can do more such contacts, I really like it. A lot more fun as working a new DXCC on FT8.
6 comments:
Dit is super Bas!! Gefeliciteerd. Dit soort QSOs geeft jou uiteindelijk veel zelfvertrouwen! Het gebruik maken van POTA.app, QRZ, RBN is dan inderdaad heel handig. Ga zo door!!
73 Vin PE2V
Nice one Bas. You will soon get addicted to it. Mind you, chasing xOTA is the same as FTx content-wise, but the fact that one can do this with the power of your own hands and brain, makes it a lot more satisfying. Here's to many more OM!
73, Martin PE1EEC/PE6X
Good morning Bas, regarding your CW contact that is a very good idea to write things down as when in the heat of the battle the mind has a tendency to draw blanks. I would had thought that 18wpm would had been common on the bands....guess not. Well happy hunting for the speed for making a QSO.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Bedankt Vincent, ik ga lekker door en hoop er binnenkort nog wat meer te werken. De 10m ARRL contest staat ook voor de deur, daar ga ik ook zeker aan meedoen in mixed mode. 73, Bas
Yes, if you look at it like that it is essentially the same as a FT8 contact. But isn't a valid QSO no more like that. At a certian time I hope to be able to make a QSO containing some more info. But for now I think I start with simple things. 73, Bas
Tnx for the comment Mike, always appreciated. It goes to far decoding and sending and in the same time knowing what to send as an answer. This was the most useful solution for now. About the 18wpm, that is the most convenient speed for me at this moment to send. 73, Bas
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