Marty, First, I wouldn't worry about those who worked XX9C out of band (and he was 59+30 over here in WPA too, darn it!) If they don't hear from the FCC, I'm sure that they'll get an OO notice, or as some have been calling them lately, Popkin-grams. (If you get an envelope with a blacked out return address and 30 year old stamps on it, you will have been so honored)
Propagation to SE Asia has been unusual. On 10 meters, I would start hearing DU's, JA's and HL's around 2130 - 2200 Z lately (getting earlier as dusk gets earlier) with the occasional BY or BV following closely (usually because there aren't as many of them on). So that's about the same time I'd expect to hear XX9 and VR2/VS2 stations to chime in also. I usually don't need the amp to work them, I've had a lot of success running 100 W to my 10 M vertical (I'm also on a city lot. OK, a double lot, but it's still close enough to Pittsburgh that I have to watch the wind direction when I spit in the front yard. Should have snuck my tower up while there was still a ham on the borough council, can't get away with it now under the new zoning passed since he became SK). The power helps when there's a pileup -- one of these days I'll punch through to P5/4L4FN, I can usually copy him 20/9, and the pileup 40/9 <g>. Fix or replace your mike. The PTT switch isn't the problem (it's just an inconvenience) but I suspect that the mike element may have been damaged. You can probably pick up a good used mike for around $25 -- I've bought a few Kenwood hand mikes that way from people who got them with their HF rigs and opted for a desk mike (incidently, Kenwood and Alinco mikes are wired the same and are interchangeable. At least the mike & PTT part are -- I have Kenwood mikes on both of my Alinco V/UHF rigs since the Alinco mikes failed, but that's another story). That might explain your low audio. Also make sure the mike gain on the rig is set correctly, if it's too low, you're not modulating the rig very well. See if you can borrow a station monitor like the old Heath SB-604 or -614 to monitor your output signal, you might be surprised. I don't think your antenna, antenna height, or the rain were big factors. I suspect that if you had given in and dropped below the band edge, you would have had no problem working him. Just be patient... you will get them. Sidenote: XX9 is what cured me of DX nets. Was over at KQ3DX's house one weekday morning, many moons ago during the last cycle (had the AM off because I had to stay late that night to update a file server with more memory & new hard drives, but I digress from the digression), looking for Asia. Heard a DX net on 15 that had an XX9 on frequency. Checked in to work him, and before I could, he checked out. Went down the band a bit, called "CQ," and low and behold, a different station, XX9MD, came back to me on the first call. I haven't been on a DX net since, I've since learned that I don't need them. 73, ron wn3vaw "Be who you are, say what you think, people that matter don't care, and people that care don't matter." -- Dr. Seuss ----- Original Message ----- From: Marty Blaise AG5T <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 3:59 PM Subject: [DX-CHAT] XX9C, propagation from W5, out of band contacts, etc. I have some questions and an observation - first of all, I hope all the U.S. stations who worked XX9C in the cqww dx ssb contest get a nice letter from Riley. The frequency of 21.198 isn't exactly in the phone portion of U.S. priviledges on 15 meters. Apparently the XX9C gang did not know that either as they were working the U.S. stations on that frequency as well. Unfortunately that was the best I heard XX9C the entire weekend - I still have yet to work any XX9 on any band. Someone asked them to go up 5 and they acknowledged the comment but I never heard them operate split, then they faded in a quick 15 minutes. The other times I saw spots for them it was at times with no propagation to my area. XX9 is a tough path to my part of W5 anyway. I realize I could have worked them on 21.198 and just put 15 meters on the qsl card, but I just could not pull myself to do that. I think I would rather work them honestly. --- So, I'm still studying propagation to that part of the world. I've always had a tough time copying stations from that part of the world - XX9, 9M2, XY, XV, BY. Here is one thing I'm wondering about - the way my station and antenna, etc. are setup - could be a factor in trying for those dxcc entities - here is the setup -- I have a 34 foot small two section tower, supporting a 5-band gemquad antenna - the antenna is fed with a w2au balun so I do not have separate feedlines. I am running 100 watts (no amp) and using a Yaesu 747 radio. My microphone antenna may be one of the problems as it has a broken push-to-talk button that was cracked during an accident. However, I can't see how it would affect anything. Although I had some hams on 10 meters tell me the other day that my audio is low. Can a messed up microphone drop the audio any? I'm not an expert in that area so maybe someone can help. If my audio is too low, then maybe a lot of the most distance dx isn't hearing a weak audio signal. Just a thought. Finally, the way my city lot is laid out, the front and back of my house is due east and west. So it's easy to point the antenna due north by using the house and the street, etc. To the back of the house is a set of overhead power lines. To point my quad short path to countries to the west puts it into those power lines. I personally can't see how the power lines would affect an outgoing signal. Of course, the proximity of the power lines could affect the incoming signals. Also power tools, hair dryers, microwave ovens etc etc although I don't notice much interference. I'm just wondering how much if any effect the power lines could have. -- My other thoughts on reaching that part of the world - not enough power (I heard at least five locals work XX9C in the contest), not enough height on the antenna (34 feet too low) and the other thing was that it rained in Houston the entire length of the contest - actually for 6 straight days! I guess rain could change the swr of the antenna but again I wouldn't think too much. So that's it - maybe someone could help me figure out a strategy for working stations like XX9, XV/3W and similar. I worked others during the contest to check my antenna - including Easter Island, Zaire, Niger and a T32, so I know I'm making it in those directions. Thanks - looking forward to suggestions. Marty Blaise, AG5T _____________________________________________ Free email with personality! 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