On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 10:21:02 +0000 (UTC), Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

The only chance I have of a voice QSO with the U.S. is on 20m just before
and after sunset. Since that's currently around noon on the east coast,
there aren't a lot of people listening.

When I was living in Ramat Gan, that was the schedule that I
maintained, two sunspot cycles ago (38 years or so). 15 and 20
meters. The US was a double hop away, and the Tel Aviv - NY
commercial HF radiotelephone circuit (pre-underseas cable,
pre-satellite) was the worst one we had. We had a better chance Tel
Aviv - Paris or Tel Aviv - London and then on TAT-5 to New York.
I was involved in the upgrade negotiations, but the Tel Aviv -
Marseilles cable and eventually the IntelSat circuits came on line
several years after I left.

No sweat - the folks whom I communicated with on 20 and 15 meters
were available. I made the first legal ham phone patch between 4X4
and the US in 1965, and had to beat the Germans and Russian stations
off with a stick!!

"Ah, for the good old days..."

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane (4X4UQ)