Well, I'm not sure if the bands are just doing really well today or if
it is the new K2. I don't really operate much, or at least I hadn't in
the recent past, however that may all be changing now that the K2 is in
my life. Since I hadn't used the "big rig" for quite a while I don't
know how it compares really. I have had 8 QSOs in the past 24 hours on
20, 30 and 40m so far. Okay, yeah, big deal, most of you probably do
more than that, right? For my operating, that is a lot though (except
for when I'm in contest mode). I guess it helped that I was a bachelor
for tonight. More impressive, though, was what some of the QSOs were.
I worked a station on 30m in Hungary, my first DX with the K2! I got
about as good a signal report as he gave other people who had called
him, but then I was running nearly QRO at a full 5W output. Wait, it
gets better! I did work a few other stations on 20m and 40m. Then
later at night I heard the FT5 DXpedition on 40m but didn't feel like
trying to bust that pileup since I am not so confident with the rig yet
and since I haven't done any CW DX pileup busting in probably 15 to 20
years. But it was fun to be able to hear the FT5 station! I then
worked a station in Hungary on 40m and he gave me a 579 before he knew I
was only running 5W. I had heard him working a station in Panama, and
heard the Panama station sign off. I wasn't sure whose frequency it was
so I just dropped my callsign in there to see which one would come
back. I'd have been happy either way. Then I worked a station in OR
who was just above the noise (the Hungarian station was actually
stronger), but it was fun trying to pull him out. As soon as I got done
working him another station came back and said "QRZ QRP? de W3AS" Well,
I live in Allentown, PA and as strong as this guy was I figured he was
quite local as well. Turned out he was near Spokane, WA and running 80W
to a 2 element yagi (again, this is on 40m) up 80 feet. No wonder he
was so strong! He later lowered his power to 5W and I could still hear
him fine, at which point I lowered mine to 1/2 watt and he could still
here me okay too!
With that, I'm off to bed and will pack up the K2 for tomorrow to
operate from Pulpit Rock along the Appalachian Trail with the EPA QRP
Club. I'm scheduled to operate on SSB mostly so I'll use my FT-100 for
that but when I can operate CW I'll switch over to the K2.
72/73,
Mark, NK8Q
K2 #4786
Polar Bear #4
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