I’d really like to work some NA chasers, transatlantic QSOs are my favourite but contacts over the atlantic seem to have dried up in recent years, despite improved propagation. I realise that there’s a time difference and NA chasers have to set an early alarm in order to catch us Europeans activating during the first part of the day.
Is there somebody out there that would be willing to listen to my QRP 20m CW signal one afternoon (my time, morning US time)? I’m planning to be out for the transatlantic event too, but I’ll probably run more power for that and run 17m too.
Hi Colin,
I, too, am usually near the shack around 1200z (1200 GMT) weekdays, and with a little advance notice I can be there.
For what it’s worth, I’ve had better luck chasing activators out your way on 17M and 10M, not so much on 20M, and checking my log confirmed that. I realize that it could be idiosyncrasies of my QTH antenna, but a number of times when I’ve been stubborn I’ve checked both the DXMAPS site and the Reverse Beacon Network to see if my experience was consistent with reality, and those sources seemed to confirm that it wasn’t just me.
Hi, Colin.
I agree with Paul. Rarely do I hear the EU activators on 20 and I don’t get many EU chasers. My RBN spots are usually only one or two hops away.
In comparison, this morning I worked S57S and JW0AWE on 17, made a handful of EU QSOs on 15 (Aleksander said I was 599 at one point), and had numerous RBN hits from G to S5. When the flux hits 200 similar results happen on 12 and 10 and those bands will often have a lower noise floor.
I’d love to get you in the log! 14Z is 7AM local time,and about 30 minutes after sunrise. I’ll be watching the spots.
73, David N6AN
20m used to work really well to east coast for me last solar cycle. I’d often work NA stations with my RockMite 20 (~300mW). The rig I want to use puts out around 2w and is single band only, on 20m.
I’d be delighted to get any NA stations in my log, like I said, I have a fascination with transatlantic QSOs, I always have.
I plan to be out on an evening after work in early May with my RockMite 20 (300mW o/p), at a guess, around 1700-1800 utc.
Glad to learn that there at least a few chasers out there!
I’m hopeful to try a late afternoon activation in the coming weeks.
June is looking a bit busy but I woukd like to do my mid summer evening activation again. I seem to recall working into Japan last year, as well as west coast US.
0700-0800 Z 20m cw is often good for me to EU. Later, 1100 onward, if the propagation gods are benevolent, 17, 15 and even 10m are good to EU from SC. I use a 20m wire dipole at 20m height on all those bands - my antenna tuner does the heavy lifting.
Colin,
The best from here (Northern California) recently has been 15 meters CW around
1600 UTC at the earliest. I listen on 20, 15 and 10 for the EU spotted activators and
mostly don’t hear any at all until at least 1600, then 15 seems to be the best.
73,
John, K6YK
Thanks for the information guys, I’m obviously well out of the loop! Looking at the propagation charts, it seems that I’ve missed the 20m propagation. I guess it’s still worth a shot on 20m, I would dearly love a transatlantic QSO on my QRP rig.
I should have ordered a QCX Mini 15 when I had the idea a couple of months ago. I guess I could attempt to switch one of my current QCX’s to 15m. I have a QCX 50w amp with a LPF delete, so I can run higher power with QCXs. For the transatlantic event I’ll probably run my QCX Mini 17 with amp, it would have been good to have 15m too by the looks of it.
I do have an FT-817 but the QCX amp won’t work with it without some modification as the TX signal logic is reversed.
Happy to try some TransAtl S2S. I have W1/AM381 just 30 mins from home. A short one but on the coast. Also, with more notice, I am often in the vicinity of W1/EM004. k1rid@yahoo
Looking at VOCAP and current propagation conditions, from Central Europe the 15m band has the best chance with 50% probability from 12:00Z till 18:00Z, with dipoles @5mtr and 5W CW, The 17m band is 30% at best.