The news, of course, is that the bands have been just fantastic lately. You almost can’t help but work DX. Yesterday, for example, I went down to the basement about 4pm to get something, and thought I’d scan the 30m band. I heard and worked both CN8IG and HB9STEVE.
If that last call sign sounds a bit odd, it’s because it’s a special event station set up the Team HB9ON Radio Group to celebrate the life of Apple computer founder, Steve Jobs. Their QRZ.Com page says, “Commemoration operation will occur sporadically throughout the month of November 2011. Most of the activity will be done in CW mode but we plan to operate SSB thanks to some of our friends.” So, you still have a chance to work them, if you want to.
Later, on 40m, I was trying to find a nice ragchew, but instead ended up working:
- PV8ADI. He always has a big signal here. If you look at his QRZ.Com page you’ll see why. He has a three-element Yagi on 40m.
- DL1NKS. I called CQ on 7019 kHz and got a replay from this German station. After we finished our QSO, UR5NQL jumped in and I had a short QSO with him.
I finished the evening with a short QSO with my friend, W4MQC, down in Florida, but he was getting pounded by some SSB QRM from stations in Central America. It’s time to get on the air and work some DX, even if you only have antennas for the low bands.
What DX have you worked lately?
Mike Zydiak says
Wow!!!! a 40M Beam…
Are the DIY plans online somewhere :)
Mike (W2MJZ)
Dave New says
Looks like I’m headed into another winter without getting my quad hooked up. It spent last winter on the ground, so at least having it on the tower is an improvement. I guess if it survives any ice storms this winter without me having to take it down again in the spring to fix it, I’ll call it a success. I could sneak a cable up to the antenna switchbox, and another one to the rotor, and be on the air, but then I’d never get a ’round tuit’ to fix it up right with a single-point ground panel, and lightning arrestors. I have most of the pieces/parts, but have not been able to carve out the time to finish the installation, yet. Hopefully, the sunspot cycle won’t go away before I get this project done.
In the meantime, I have a ground-mounted Gap Titan DX vertical dipole antenna that I can use when the signals are strong enough to be heard over all the local electronic noise it tends to pick up (computers, etc). I took a screen shot of my P3 during the recent ARRL CW Sweepstakes of an 80 kHz slice of 40 meters. Wow. Looked like at least 200 or more stations all jammed in to that little segment. And this was on Sunday evening, about a hour or so before the end of the contest. I completely missed the 10, 15, and 20 meter openings earlier that weekend, but I’ve listened extensively to 10 meters the last few evenings while melting solder on the bench, assembling an Elecraft XV432 70cm transverter. 10 meters now seems to be dominated with folks exchanging 10-10 numbers, it seems.