On Nov 22, 2005, at 2:01 AM, Bekir Kemal Ataman wrote:
I think many "Elekrafters" enjoy CW because the radios (K1, KX1, K2)
have such nice characteristics as CW rigs
I can understand people preferring CW because of having CW Rigs and
vice
versa but if it is reaching a point of ejecting/rejecting others
for not
having the same preferences then we have got a problem.
I think most will welcome you here, and the cw / ssb rivalry is
all in
fun (or so it seems to me).
I just hope it is. Otherwise I'd really be disappointed.
Don't worry about it. There are a few fanatics, but most of us like
to operate both modes. Remember that this list also supports the K1
and KX1, both of which are CW-only, so there may me more messages
regarding CW than SSB.
So what antenna(s) are you using with your K2, and what bands are you
using it most on?
I have got a 4-band inverted-V on 10, 20, 40 and 80 meters about 20
meters
off the ground. I managed to get SWRs less than 1.2 on all bands after
struggling for a few weeks on the roof of our apartment block. It
seems it
was worth the trouble.
Although my QTH is blocked by a nearby hill in the East and another
nearish
hill in the North, I have worked quite a few countries with less
than 8
Watts. (My rig does not go above 7.1 to 7.3 Watts, giving a Hi Cur
warning.
I just hope this is normal. Cal Cur is set at 3.5 Ampers)
This sounds like there may be a possible problem. Is it this way on
all bands? You should be able to get ~15 watts output from a K2.
When I could hear the stations early enough, I have managed to
contact a
few Japanese stations, too. When I am little late, my signals get
lost in
the pileup. The European DX Net organized by I2ZGC, Gianni helped
me make
contact with a few North African stations but I could not hear/get
heard by
stations in South Africa nor Indonesia. I sometimes hear a few North
American stations early in the morning but even then they are very
weak
most of the time.
I work on 40 and 80 meters at night and 20 meters during the day,
mostly. I
could not hear anyone on 10 meters so far. It seems to be very
quite in
this part of the world. Perhaps I just wonder around the wrong
frequencies
or just at the wrong time. I cannot go in the air very often
because of
work load during the week and because of XYL QRM at weekends but I
try to
join contests whenever I can. It is great fun.
We are nearing the bottom of the sunspot cycle and propagation
conditions favor the lower frequencies (10 meters will be useless
much of the time). In 4 or 5 years, conditions will be much improved
on the higher frequencies, so we all need to be patient. In 2001,
conditions were much better and I was able to work 100 countries
running 5 watts into a 30 meter long wire antenna (non-resonant)
which was only 4 meters above the ground. These contacts were a
mixture of CW and SSB and many were on 10 meters. There is a 10
meter DX contest which will take place on 10-11 December and that
will bring out many more operators to that band than you will find
presently. I'm sure that your "TA" prefix will be very welcome in
that contest.
73,
Bob Nielsen, N7XY
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