My antennas are getting bolder on my balcony, if not more effective.
Reception continues to improve and 40 meters is starting to look
promising, but no contacts yet. I do hear lots of stuff, but very
few Mainland US stations, one would think US Hams go to bed after work
and do not get up until noon.
Early this morning I was up (5 a.m.) for some of that grey line and
predawn action your read about. Not a single US station to be heard
on 40 meter CW. I called CQ several times.
I was rewarded with several tuneups that turned out to be people getting
ready to call CQ exactly, precisely, on top of my signal, as in zero
beat. It is enough to make one paranoid since there were only about
three signals audible from 7.000 to 7.030 at any time.
I heard, but failed to work HL5NBZ, JS1EQN, JJ8KGZ and VR2GY.
That last one was weak and said something about being in HangPoun City,
I think in Vietnam. Possibly Haiphong City. He was eventually jumped
on by a UA station that pegged my S meter!
Any tips on the best times for 40 meters to the US? I certainly can
find the best times for 40 meter CW to Japan, evenings and mornings.
During daylight hours, 40 is pretty ragged with noise locally. I
figured with Japan in the evening, I could hear US in the predawn
hours locally. But it has either been dead as a doornail or once again
featured Japan and stations West, except for some South American stations.
Heaven only knows where, if anywhere, the mess on my lanai is radiating.
My new fancy field strength meter is "in the mail" so I can reassure
myself that all that nice SWR reading isn't just making toast in the
tuner.
BTW, I do know that using HAM rigs on Marine frequencies is illegal,
I only said that dealers are happy to make the mods, and purchasing
and selling them for Marine use is common practice.
Also, locally at least the top of the 80 meter band is now given over
to SW AM stations, very strong, from Japan, Asia and Africa, from
3.9 to 4.0 Mhz. I hear a few rare CW signals in the 3.6 Mhz range
with my little wire, but these SW AM guys are S-meter bouncers.
[
QRP-L Archive |
]
[
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000
]