Operating Notes: Bandscope observations, a pirate on 2m, VU2

Bandscope observations

If you who read my blog regularly, you know I’m a big fan of bandscopes. Here are a couple of relevant observations:

1. I almost missed a DX contact because the DX station called about 250 Hz below my frequency. Because I had my bandpass set to 300 Hz (+/-150 Hz), I couldn’t hear him at all. I did seem him on the bandscope, though, and after I adjusted my receive incremental tuning (RIT), I worked him just fine.
2. Not having a radio with a bandscope can lead you to be more pessimistic about ham radio than you should be. I worked a fellow who lamented how quiet the band was and how no one operated CW anymore. I found this baffling, as the band looked pretty active to me. It turns out that the guy was using a radio without a bandscope and when he tuned around, he couldn’t hear anything. I, on the other hand, could see the activity.

A pirate on 2m?

I am the main net control station for our club’s Monday night 2-meter net. (The net convenes every Monday night at 8 pm Eastern time on the 146.96- repeater. Join us if you can hit the repeater.)

Last week, a fellow checked in the call sign K1TKE. Since I have a computer in the shack, I like to call up the QRZ.Com page for people I haven’t worked before. There was no page for K1TKE.

Now, I know that there are some licensed amateurs that don’t have a QRZ page for one reason or another, so when it was K1TKE’s turn, I gave him a call. I got no response, so I’m guessing that this guy was unlicensed. That’s the first time this has happened to me.

VU2!

After all these years, I finally worked a VU station, logging VU2GSM on March 10 on 30-meter CW. I know this isn’t the biggest accomplishment in my ham radio career, but nonetheless it’s pretty cool to me.

I must say that Kanti had great ears. He wasn’t all that strong here, so I imagine that I was equally weak there. Even so, he got my call correctly the first time.