Calling CQ is still a weird thing for me. I mostly just spin the dial and hope to find someone else calling CQ; or even better someone calling CQ DX or CQ Contest. These are great because it’s a narrow set of conversational topics. You get an RST, you give an RST, you exchange QTH…
Was able to make two international contacts this evening and they couldn’t have been more different. First was a gentleman in Brasil who runs a veritable QSO factory. When he taps you on the head it’s call sign, name, and signal report. If he’s feeling particularly generous he’ll give you his nickname. Dude makes at…
Doubled the number of radials on the 43′ vertical out back and I think I’ve cut down the background noise from about a S6 to a S4.5. Quiet stations are now a bit easier to pick up. Speaking of which…QSO with Cuba! 20 meters is truly the magic band. Sending this QSL card is going…
I was spinning around the 20 meter band this evening looking for entertainments and was not disappointed. The band is quirky this time of night (in my experience) and sometimes you find interesting signals. Radio Havana Cuba [1] broadcasts in AM on 14.295mHz which is right in the thick of the internationally designated 20 meter…
Rolled out this morning with the Egg’s new dual-band Yaesu in full operations mode. Once I made it to what passes for an arterial in our neighborhood I fired up the mic on the 2 meter call channel. To my surprise I was answered with a 5×5 from someone also in the south of Bellevue.…