pickle wrote:

Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
pickle wrote:

On 7180 kHz this morning about 0300 EST on SSB I heard an ongoing
transmission. It consisted of a male voice saying things like
"Kilowatt 7 radio lima, I gotcha". Then he would go on to the next
callin and say basically the same thing. Sometimes he would say
"Kilowatt 7 radio lima", sometimes he would say "7 radio lima 7084"
(although I wad recieving on 7180. There were lots of bravos and
charlies and zulus and all that. It sounded somewhat aviation but
there were no ATC instructions only what I mentioned above. I can't
remember the callins he was responding to because I was half asleep .
The callins were always short. No more than a few words.


It's an amateur (ham) station in Washington State. The callsign is
K7RL, given phonetically to avoid confusion with other similar calls. He
would have been exchanging a signal report (almost always 5-9) and a
geographic zone (for Washington State, 3) with the other station.

Hams in most countries outside the Americas are not allowed to transmit
above 7100KHz, while U.S. hams are not allowed to transmit SSB *below*
7150KHz. If K7RL wished to contact stations outside the Americas (and
that's the point of this weekend's competition) he must transmit on a
frequency above 7150 and listen on one below 7100. Presumably he chose
7084KHz as his listening frequency.

(this practice, of transmitting on one frequency and listening on
another, is known as "operating split")

Expect to hear more of this activity through 2400UTC tomorrow. Overseas
stations will be transmitting between 7020 and 7100. There will also be
activity on all other ham bands.

Ok. Thanks to all for the replies. I'll tune it in again tonight
(if I get woken up by another thunderstorm).

I guess I'm used to the standard phonetic alphabet and his
use of other words threw me off a bit. That and I was
very much not all the way awake.

Not everyone uses the 'standard' phonetic alphabet. I would have used Kilo 7
Romeo Lima. But each to his own.

My own callsign would be November 8 Kilo Delta Victor.

Enjoy,

dxAce
Michigan
USA