So, I operated the PA QSO Party last weekend. I really enjoyed it. There were lots of stations on, and I made a bunch of contacts.
I did have a bit of an odd experience in the evening, though, on 80m. While the PA stations were pretty strong, none of them could hear me very well. I know that many of them were using amplifiers, but even so, they were S8 or better at times, so they should have been able to copy me.
This week’s QSO Party is the New York QSO Party. I should be able to do pretty well in this contest, too, as it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump away. Might have a guy from my CW class come over and give him a little taste of CW contesting.
Over the past week or so, I worked two special event stations: K4A and W3R/90. K4A was the callsign of the Route 66 2017 Military Vehicle Convoy On-The-Air Event. K4A is just the Southern contingent, operating from Marion and Levy Counties in north central Florida.
W3R/90 was a special event station celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Frankford Radio Club. According to their website, “The Frankford Radio Club is a very active radiosport contesting club centered near the Borough of Alburtis, Pennsylvania with members in a radius covering all or portions of nine states. “Proficiency through Competition” is their motto.
I enjoyed working these two special event stations, but all I got out of them is a “599 73” type QSO. You’d think that they’d want to tell you a little bit about the special event, not just say hi and goodbye. I know that when I operated a special event for the End Polio Now campaign, I tried to give a little spiel about the campaign and encourage those I contacted to visit the End Polio Now website.
I finally got around to swapping the plastic finger pieces on my Begali Magnetic Pro with the metal finger pieces on the Begali Simpliex. You wouldn’t think that switching the two would make a big difference, but it did. The metal finger pieces are much stiffer than the plastic ones and took some getting used to. Now that I’m used to them, I really prefer the metal ones.
Dave New, N8SBE says
I encountered similar “one-way” propagation on 80 and 40 on my ground-mounted GAP Titan DX vertical. I could hear stations on 80 and 40 just fine, but the couldn’t hear me. Very frustrating. It seems that on the lower HF bands, just about any piece of wire will pick up OK, but you really need a good radiator at the frequency of interest to ‘get out’.
In my case, I ended up putting up a ladder-line fed ZS6BKW doublet about 35 feet, and it has really made a difference for me and my 100W barefoot station on 80 and 40, particularly for state-side contests.
I used to just shut down in the evenings, when 40 and 80 ‘went long’, because it was too frustrating to get anyone to hear me. I don’t have that problem now that I’m using a horizontal dipole that is almost full-size on 80.
Dan KB6NU says
I’m glad that I’m not the only one. :)
This weekend, I worked both the NY and IL QSO Parties, and had no trouble working stations on 80m in the evenings. So, I don’t think it was my antenna (a homebrew, 73-ft. “Cobra” doublet, fed with ladder line). I’m going to chalk it up to weird propagation conditions a week ago Saturday.