Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Two new continents on 40m
I popped up to the shack after watching some evening TV and decided to have a listen to what was happening on JT65A on 40m. I tuned my K3 to 7.076MHz and had only been listening for a couple of minutes when I saw a CQ call from VK6BN appear on the screen. I only just managed to set up a reply before the start of the transmit period and you could have knocked me down with a feather when he came back with a report! We completed the QSO in the minimum 6 minutes.
I've been reported in VK before using WSPR, that's nothing unusual, but this is my first ever two-way contact with Australia on any band or mode and I'm pretty amazed to have achieved it on 40m of all bands using just 30 watts to my attic dipole. JT65A really is amazing!
As if that wasn't enough, I then worked KE1AF for my first contact with North America on 40m. So I shall be going to bed this evening feeling pretty pleased!
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6 comments:
I have to admit, I wish I could get QSO credit for all the stations I have been working on 40m WSPR.
Perhaps someone will invent a slightly more automated version of WSPR that will qualify as a 2-way QSO one day.
Hello Julian, congrats with this great achievement. Real DX, JT65A is not that bad, but if it´s crowded on the freq. with QRO stations it´s difficult to make any QSO. You were there on just the right moment. 73, Bas
Hello Julian, congrats with this result. That makes JT65A so special. I agree with Bas, that the JT65A bands are very crowded sometimes. And when someone is blowing with more than 50 watts... it's almost impossible to work qrp. But I keep on trying. ;-) 73 Paul
Good morning Julian, That sure was a large accomplishment in such a short time. It was well worth the trip to the shack....much better than just another half hour of TV.
Nice work Julian. Excellent.
Let me tell you what happened to me a few weeks ago. This was on 20m JT65-HF around 0600 UTC, I just happen to have it there, no signals. Suddenly a VK popped up with an excellent SNR, however just as I keyed TX, the radio made a load beep and the high SWR flashed. Oh dear my antenna broke! I ran out side into the rain and wind, fixed it and ran back· However, the window had closed and VK was no more Baah!
I am often on 40m and 20m JT65-HF in the early mornings as time permits. Maybe one day I will bag a proper 2-way VK QSO ...
I do get heard in VK, once I had an SNR allegedly of -3, however no human was listening/watching! That was around 15h00 UTC, I suppose they were all in bed!
73
André
Aaargh! This looks fascinating Julian - something else I must add to my 'things to try' list!!
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