I logged onto the ON4KST chat page today and saw the New England guys talking about South America, I turned the rig on and started to decode some big DX!
Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come!
-Steve
N1JFU
my 100th DXCC entity
As a follow-up to my last blog post, I've been having a great time working 17m FT8. I'm lucky in that I work from home, so when I'm stuck on a boring conference call, I can also be working DX! In a mere 33 days I've been able to work 100 DXCC entities! I fully take advantage of the color coding system of WSJT-X, that way I can just look for the hot pink to grab new entities, beige for the new CQ zones.
Getting QSL cards from all 100 will be a different story, so I probably won't have a DXCC award for a number of months, but not bad! To date, I have 82 confirmed....
Some Highlights:
Misses:
As I was laying in bed at 7am and noticed there was a facebook post about 2m being open the night before. I took a look at he APRS map and saw sonmething like this:
Next, came the exciting bits. K0TPP in Missouri told me he heard me loud, but I wasn't able to work him. After looking west for a bit I eneded up working two stations in Ohio, which is a new state and two new grids:
WB8ART in EM79
K8DIO in EN91
The band started to drop out, but then over the course of the next hour I worked a number of other stations in Ohio and Indiana:
AB9V in EN60, Indiana
W9WO in EM69, Indiana
KE8FD in EN80, Ohio
N8AM in EN81, Ohio
K8DZ in EM79, Ohio
Four hours later and the band still is alive, although it seems to have shifted a bit west removing me from the pipeline.
I also got a bonus new grid, FN11, which isn't that far but I hadn't ever worked anyone there yet.
All in all, 6 new grids today, which brings my total 2M grids up to 52
UPDATE: Later that evening, it's open back up again.
CQ'ing on FT8 is showing positive results:
K8ROX in EN80, Ohio
N8WAC in EN81, Ohio
K8ROK in EN80, Ohio
KB8VAO (didn't complete) in EN91, Ohio
N8LRG in EN80, Ohio
N8GLS in EN91, Ohio
KD8JQ in EN91, Ohio
N8XQM in EN80, Ohio
FINAL UPDATE:
After all the new calls dried up on 2m, I gave 432 late in the envening and managed to work Dave, K1RZ in FM19, Virginia. The funny thing about this contact is that I have a very modest antenna about 25' above ground pointing directly into a tree. When the band is open, you can work just about everything....
-Steve N1JFU
I didn't really have time to do much operating this weekend, Saturday was Soccer game and kid stuff. Later in the afternoon I got for a bit and tried to get 222 and 432 running. I somehow ended up blowing my 222 Amp. I had it outputting 300W and the next thing I know, it was down to zero watts. I probably blew the FET, new ones appear to be around $100, if i'm lucky. After further troubleshooting, the SWR on my 222 antenna is up over 5:1, which the FET didn't like.
Sunday afternoon I managed to cobble 432 back on the air and worked a couple of mostly local stations, with the exception of WB1GQR in FN33, Vermont, but they usually are on a mountaintop. My 432 is only a 6 foot book and it's basically pointing right into trees. Anyhow, 50w and a few contacts.
I have better 432 and 222 antennas on the ground waiting to go up, I'm waiting for the weather to get a little cooler. With luck, everything will be working for January.
Band conditions didn't seem very good. I tried with VE1SKY in FN74, he was hearing me, but I didn't hear him at all. Better luck in January.
Final Score: 2,312
6m: 21q 13g
2m: 27q 13g
222: 1q 1g
432: 9q 7g
Best DX:
To the North: 2m VE2PN in Quebec, FN46
To the South: 6m K1HTV in VA, FM18
It started yesterday, September 7th, I got a text from Jeff, AJ1L that 2m was open to North Carolina. I worked my way down into the shack to hear K1ISR S9+20 in North Carolina, grid square FM06. I had a quick chat with him and then looked for some digital signals. I found Dave, K1RZ, in FM19 Maryland on FT8. I then worked a few other coastal stations, all with great signals.
I left the radio on and when I came down into my office to start work the morning of September 8th, I heard some activity on FT8. I quickly nabbed Bill, VA1WV in FN75, Springhill, Nova Scotia. FN75 was a new grid for me! VE1SKY was next in the log, to the south of Bill in FN74.
Later that evening, after the kids were put to bed, I came into my shack to find the band wide open up and down the coast. K1ISR was back on to the south and VE1SKY was back on to the north! I had a great evening and worked a number of stations, including:
VE1SKY in FN74
AB4SF in FM17
K1RZ in FM19
KD4AA in FM17
W3BFC in FM28
N4ASF in FM27
W3BJ in FM27
KD2QED in FM29
K1ZE in FN31
NG4C in FM16 (although WSJT went braindead)
KD8UD in FM17
All of these QSOs were armchair copy, very easy to work everyone. Most signals were S9+
Here is what the APRS map looked like:
And here is what Hepburn looked like (it's gotten better over the years!)
I think it's safe to say that the big excitement for lots of folks down south was that the opening was really from the NC/VA/MD coast all the way up to Nova Scotia. Roger, VE1SKY was the Belle of the Ball and had folks calling him from every grid between FM06 and FN74. I took a quick video on my phone and posted it to Youtube here:
It would be great if this could hold out for the weekend, as this coming weekend is the ARRL September VHF conference. Experience tells me that the band will be EXCELLENT on Friday and will die about 1pm on Saturday (the contest starts at 2pm).
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| assembled on the test bench |
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| The initial RX antenna array |
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| GPIO labs ADS-B 5v pre-amp, Mini-Circuits VBFZ-1065-S+ bandpass filter |
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| The RX array with the new DPD 9dbi ADS-B antenna far right |
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