Yesterday during my night activation, JA/HG-228 the conditions on the 28 and 24 MHz bands were excellent.
During my CQs and with only 10 watts and a dipole antenna I was able to hear my own echo since I always operate in full QSK.
After a few CQs on 28mhz chasers started calling me from Europe. They really came with extremely strong signals and those who didn’t came with respectable signals.
Possibly the number of QSOs was not many but due to the strong signals I would venture to say that these two bands will be where we will have to invest more time.
73 de JP3PPL
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I agree. In the last 24 hours there have been over 150 spots for 28 MHz activations. Over the last few days 28 MHz has been busier than I can ever remember it, with signals from all over the world. The old standby band, 14 MHz, has been decidedly lack-lustre by comparison. I think that over the next couple of years 28 MHz will probably be the money band. In my case I will have to re-think my antennas, I am set up for the lower bands and a 40 metre long doublet does not do too well on the higher bands - gainy lobes and deep nulls!
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I remember in the 90s contacting Japan from Argentina on 29mhz FM using only 25 watts and a 3-element Yagi.
And hours and hours with the rest of the world on CW/SSB
I hope I don’t have to say “Those were the days”
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10 and 12 have been good for several weeks now, mornings to Europe and afternoons/evenings to Asia.
I just made a new doublet for 12 meters and have a half square in the works. My inner DXer pulls me higher and higher in frequency as the conditions improve. We may even see some 6 meter activity is the sun really heats up.
That is quite an exciting experience to hear one’s own echo!
It was good to make an S2S wth you a few weeks ago, Takeo.
I look forward to better and better conditions on 15/12/10 as cycle 25 peaks. Cycle 20 was my first.
David N6AN
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Hello David and thanks for the S2S.
Yes, here the conditions with the west coast of the US occur between approximately 2200 and 0100 UTC.
The day we did the S2S, the rest of the chasers had very strong signals. Even with some QSB I was able to contact the east coast.
To think that until a couple of months ago I always started calling in the 14-18-21mhz bands and progressively advanced towards 24 and 28 to only make a couple of calls in these bands and then immediately abandon. But lately everything has been reversed since I call much more time on 28 and 24 and with good results.
I hope all this is the presentation of something good!
Thank you for the contact and the patience asking for repeats yesterday, I was running 10W from a KX2 myself. Now that you mention it I was also hearing echoes, but I thought they were audio artifacts from the QSK.
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Hi Carlo and thank you for the QSO! I asked repeated times not because of you but for the QRM by the CBs.
Hopefully our next QSO will be an S2S! See you on the air
73!
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Yes, unfortunately I was also hearing voice activity in the CW portion of 10m, I guess it’s the downside of enjoying the current band conditions.
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Yes, in the 10 meter band we have problems with some fishing vessels (I suppose Chinese fishing vessels) and with radio taxis or some type of transport from Southeast Asia. Sometimes they seem local because of the strength of the signals.
Reminds me of late October, 2012… When I was chasing on 10m, M1EYP was 559, G1INK was 5 and 5, DL3SBA was 5 and 7, and DC7CCC was an incredible 599. All were on EU summits, and I was on the West Coast, USA with no beam antenna.
Elliott, K6EL
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