RadioBanter - View Single Post - NE-Asia/Oceania times

June 16th 04, 06:12 PM

(Ken Boasi) said :

This
past winter was good-30 and 40 were great pretty much every night
around here-worked my only VK on 30 meters; not bad even for my
pisweaker 100w/dipole station.

That's what I was until a few months ago (now 600W and a dipole).
After I wrote that article last night I spun the VFO around 20 metre
phone, and I heard two ZLs and a VK3 between midnight and 1 am, so
they're still possible. I don't get out too well on 30, nor am I a big
CW fan, so I can't say for sure how that band is now.

Heard FO/ON4AXU last week, and was
getting set to work him, but at the moment of truth, the phone rang
and I had to take it....krappppp.....
I guess I'm going to have to start getting up early to go hunting-but
I can barely get my carcass out of bed for work in the mornings...even
earlier for DX might kill me.

I'm the same way - I've missed a LOT of good stuff by being a Night
Person, but then again, I've worked a lot of stuff on 20 at that time
that early risers would have missed, too, so it all comes out in the
end, I suppose.

A couple of months ago, right around the vernal equinox, the cat
decided I'd slept long enough and became a 17-pound annoyatron at
about 7:00 am. Feh. With bright sunshine streaming in everywhere, and
a cat in "on" mode, I gave up sleep for that morning and wandered into
the shack to twiddle the knob and see what I could find. Solar numbers
weren't great - close to where we are now - so I expected to hear some
weak VKs, etc. First CQ I caught was UA0SJ from Brastk, *easily* S9+20
to my dipole. Got him second call. Then, to my delight, Chak, JT1CO
was also CQ-CQing down the band. Flipped on Mr. Ameritron and popped
him first call! Bingo, zone 23 (though it was just to see if I could
do it, since I'd already had JT). I'd also heard EX station but I
wasn't about to try and get through the pileup, since, again, I
already have EX confirmed on 20 and he was weak to me.

All were gone within a few minutes, so I have no doubt this was grey
line propagation. During the Russian DX 'test shortly thereafter, I
got up early on purpose (ick) and was rewarded with a UA0 in zone 19
for my trouble (first on 20). About a month ago, I caught two 4S7s on
15 working stateside, but I was also at my club station with a Yagi at
120' up and 1100 Watts. They were loud enough that maybe I could have
snagged them at home. This was about 4 PM local.

Depending on which way your dipole is oriented, you may have better
luck hitting Asia than I've had. My antenna is exactly magnetically
north-south (001-181 according to my GPS). I get out the best around
40-50 degrees, with booming sigs to central and eastern Europe. Not
bad to VK/ZL short path either, and OK to the Caribbean. Asia's a
write off to me. I have to fight for JAs, and to snare the one BY, YC
and others in SE Asia, at the peak of the cycle none the less, I had
to scream my head off (or scream my fingers off). Zones 23, 24, 26 and
27 took seemingly forever to get (23 was the last one for my WAZ and
it was torture!).

Zone 2 will be easy for you. Every major contest a team of VE hams
usually goes up into northern Quebec (near Sept Isles) to work Zone 2,
so just hang around until CQWW this fall. There's an operation from
Labrador (Z2) for 3 days July 31-Aug. 1st as well. that'll be
dirt-simple on 20, 40 and maybe 80 if thunderstorms aren't nearby.

Good Luck, and start setting that alarm clock back a few minutes every
day!

73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

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