Wednesday, February 10, 2010

PSK contacts on 15m

What a difference a few sunspots make! Today the 15m band was open bringing lots of signals on PSK31, though I was tinkering with KComm and wasn't devoted to making contacts. Just before lunch I briefly heard A71CV (Qatar) and tried to call FM5AA (Martinique) who was running a pileup 0.1 to 0.5KHz up. Patience is not one of my virtues and I eventually gave up. It is not the first time I have heard FM5AA and I'm sure one day I'll get him in the log.

After lunch it was wall-to-wall Ukrainians. Amongst others I worked Vladimir UR4LME from my wife's home city of Kharkiv where I lived for several months. It's an attractive city if looking a bit neglected, with an abundance of beautiful girls.

Although I tried to strike up a conversation Vladimir stuck to his macros. English-speaking hams who disparage the use of macros in PSK31 often forget that many people don't speak English. For them, using macros and sticking to a set format is the only way to make a contact. The number of Ukrainians I met who could speak English was definitely a minority. I should probably set up some macros in Russian, but then I would need Olga to translate the replies I got!

After 1600z many stations were heard from the eastern USA, though none were very strong. I managed to work Tom VA3TVW and Jim N4ST. I wonder how long before 10 metres comes alive?

3 comments:

EA2CCG Joaquín Montoya said...

Hello,yesterday mornig I could work a ZS station on 10m, keep an aye from time to time to the cluster and the beacons.

good luck!

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hi Julian, I was WSPRing on 10m yesterday. I was not received by anyone. I received 1 signal from G8JNJ. Monitoring the cluster I saw that 10m in south Europe was open to ET and ZS. 73, Bas

Adam said...

Hello Julian, I have a few macros set up on PSK with my goodbye & 73 message in many different languages. I agree there are indeed many PSK users who are using PSK by very virtue of the fact they can not use SSB because they speak no English. Macros are their way into International contacts. When you think about it, it's no different than the "normal" SSB exchange of names, signal reports and QTH. Hope you get Martinique or Qatar next time! Have a good day. 73 Adam