So, I now have a new radio—a Flex 6400. I quite like it so far, but it does have some quirks. For example, even though you need to connect it to a PC running some SDR software, you can’t get a CW sidetone through the PC speakers. You can hear the received signal, just not the CW sidetone when you’re transmitting. To hear the sidetone, you have to connect either an amplified speaker or headphones to the appropriate jacks on the back of the radio.
I’ve only been using the radio for a couple of weeks, so that’s all that I have at this point, but stay tuned for more as I stumble across features that I didn’t even know this radio had.
80 meter DX!
My Cobra antenna is kind of low for 80 meters, but even so, in the four years that it has been up, it’s done a pretty good job of allowing me to work stations in the continental U.S. east of the Mississippi. In the last week, though, I’ve managed to work several DX stations, including a CT9 and an F4. And, a week and a half ago, I worked an N1 who said that he heard several Europeans trying to answer my CQ.
I’m not entirely sure what to attribute this DX to. I haven’t made any changes to the antenna or its configuration, so it’s not that. I guess band conditions are just better, but I would have thought I’d been luckier sooner. Have conditions on 80 meters ben better for you this past couple of weeks?
Answering CW CQs
The other night I was calling CQ on 3533 kHz at about 23 words per minute. After about 10 minutes with no calls, I saw a station pop up on 3534 kHz. (This is one of the cool things about having a radio with a panadapter.) So, I tuned up there, and he was calling CQ!
Now, it’s possible that he didn’t hear me, but my guess is that he just didn’t want to answer me because I was going faster than he wanted to go. He was sending about 15-16 words per minute. Being the good operator that I am, I cranked down the keyer, returned his call, and we had a nice chat.
The point here is that he shouldn’t have been afraid to answer my call at whatever speed he was comfortable with. Most CW operators will slow down because a slower-speed QSO is better than no QSO at all, and most times they’re very nice QSOs indeed. This is especially true for me. Please feel free to call me anytime at any speed when you hear me on the air.
Steve~W8SFC says
As you asked about 80 meters, I believe you are right about band conditions improving. As you know I too am using an 80 meter Cobra antenna and lately I have been able to make contacts more frequently and with better signal quality and readability – in phone mode on 80 and 40 meters in particular. I have also noticed more CW traffic as well. This has been true both day and night, but nights have been quite a bit better than daytime. I’ve seen this also on 2 meters – in one case I had a QSO with another operator in mid Ohio, well over 100 miles away. In my opinion this is quite an improvement over even the past 6 months.
Dave New, N8SBE says
The 80M and 2M openings are not really related. The low bands (160M, 80M, and 40M) are enjoying a resurgence of good propagation and low noise, due to the current very low sunspot count (zero). This is the silver lining in the no-sunspot cloud, so to speak.
2M openings can come from many sources, among them tropospheric openings, sporadic E, meteor scatter, etc. If you read the VHF & Up column in QST regularly, you will see reports of openings on the VHF/UHF bands, including seasonal variations, etc.
It’s all fun to chase after the various propagation modes, for sure.
Dave New, N8SBE says
I had an interesting CW QSO a few years ago, when I decided to ‘slum’ on the old Novice 40M band, looking for a relaxing slow-speed CW QSO. A station answered my 10-13 WPM CQ, and we QSO’ed for about 30 minutes, a very pleasant experience.
I looked him up later on QRZ, and found out he was a 20 WPM Extra (as was I), so it seems we were both looking for the same thing!
Dustin Hasselbach says
Hello Dan, I just had a good qso on 80 and looked you up on the zed. Saw that you had a blog and stopped by. 80m has been good for a couple of months now. I worked a couple of 1000 mile plus dx stations on the bottom edge of 80 lately. I have a off center fed dipole and it’s not at optimum height. The best time is after 1:00 am in the morning. 73 and take care Dustin AA8NN
Dan KB6NU says
Thanks for the Q, Dustin! It’s always a pleasure to work someone who hasn’t been working CW since God created radio. As I mentioned, my antenna is on the low side, too. That’s why I think we did so well this evening. We had a little NVIS action going.