The 'bottom of the sunspot cycle' can be downright frustrating if one wants to work DXCC in a weekend using a dipole, but it can be a very interesting time to be 'spooking the aether'.
I work most of my DX when the bands are 'dead'. I don't band-hop much. I'll pick a band - may favorite DX band is 20 meters - and spend an hour listening to static if that's what's there while tuning across the band. That's where I find a lot of interesting contacts. Much like 6 or 2 meters when an opening hits, suddenly there will be a signal or two standing well above the noise, and they're often long DX - sometimes long-path DX as well. Sometimes we chew the rag for a while because he was listening to a 'dead' band too. Maybe that happens more now because the guys looking for a 30-second QSO before jumping off to another station are punching the band-buttons like crazy looking for a pileup or they've given up entirely. I exaggerated. On 20 I don't think I've ever listened to static for a full hour. Long before then I've scared up a QSO somewhere <G>. The other night I was listening to a very quiet 40 meter CW band. I'm currently on a temporary antenna. It's what most would call a NVIS antenna on 40. It's an end-fed dipole less than 20 feet up. Virtually all of my contacts are along the west coast from my QTH near the Oregon coast. I normally don't expect to work anything east of the Rocky Mountains. I called a brief CQ, and there was a reply just above the noise. Cool, I thought; I always enjoy working a weak signal. It turned out to be N9DFM, Dave in Minnesota, running 5 watts! So I cranked down my power from 100 to 5 watts and he copied me QRP as well. Not fantastic DX, I know, but a FB QSO and over a 1,700+ mile hop I don't normally expect to work even when the band is very active. And all on low-slung temporary antenna. The bands aren't "out". They're just different than they were a couple of years ago. Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
