Good Evening,
Forty meters was a bit noisy, then it is summer. Tom mentioned it was
loud near him but I was having my own difficulties with the QRN here in
Oregon. The first two check ins on the 40 meter net occurred before I was
done with the preamble so I never got to call that first CQ ;) That's OK,
it was Rick and Ric from opposite parts of North America. Both were
testing my hearing which is afflicted with my present cold. I am two days
into it so hope for more sleep tonight and less nose blowing tomorrow! It
is getting rather sore from abrasion. I don't think the cold effected my
hearing too much but it did get to my timing. There were a couple of
occasions when I was having out of body experiences watching my fingers
send. Then my brain clicked back to normal mode and I started making
mistakes! Most probably I send better if I don't think about the
mechanics of it too much. I can't walk and chew gum at the same time
while thinking about either one ;)
On twenty meters there were two surprises; both during the same
contact. First we had EI6IZ check in. The second miracle was I copied
his call correctly right off. I've grown accustomed to K, A, W, N, V, and
the occasional XE call but when a totally foreign one comes along I
normally blow it. I need more DX experience obviously. Maybe this winter
I'll sit at the radio and work a few stations on the other side of the
world late at night. However, I don't get to talk with them very long
before someone else wishes to get an RST and their call and that's it.
The pileup comes shortly afterward and I lose my chance to chat. Hmmph!!
That is the part of radio I like the best: simply chatting with someone
about their life, their day, their family, etc. Simply getting an RST and
a callsign leaves me less than satisfied.
But it sure was nice to have another contact from another country. One
of these days Geoff will get his chance and Rupert will awaken him only to
find the bands are open across the pole into Oregon :) Then we'll have
Scotland in our logs! As the year proceeds toward autumn and thence to
winter the odds of that occurring increase greatly.
On to the lists ==>
On 14050 kHz at 2250 z:
N0SS - Tom - MO - K2 - 008
VE3XL - Ric - ON - K1 - 968
W6BK - Dave - CA - K2 - 4910
EI6IZ - Brendan - Ireland - K2 - 1642
W0CZ - Ken - ND - K2 - 1031
KT5E - Jay - CO - K2 - 5037
K4JPN - Steve - GA - K2 - 1422
VE3XL - Ric - ON - K1 - 968
K2HYD - Ray - (GA) - KX1 - 608
K6DGW - Fred - CA - K2 - 4398
N7NLU - Karl - OR - K2 - 4227
AB9V - Mike - IN - K2 - 3993 Get well quick!!
On 7045 kHz at 0152 kHz:
N0SS - Tom - MO - K2 - 008
KL7CW - Rick - AK - KX1 - 798 QNI #55!!
VE3XL - Ric - ON - K1 - 968 QNI #110!!!
AE6GC - Jack - CA - KX1 - 1403
N7NLU - Karl - OR - K2 - 4227
WG7Y - Robert - WY - K1 - 2140
N0BK - Bruce - MN - K2 - 3646
KT5E - Jay - CO - K2 - 5037
If there are any errors or additions to the above lists please email
me. Now for a few more chores and then bed. Tomorrow I get to launch our
helium balloon once again and hope all the electronics don't fail. Or
fall off into a river! Failure is OK but losing them into the Columbia,
Willamette or Tualatin Rivers is not! A few more bits to interface into
the microcontroller system and then we make it shrink. That will be fun.
IR imaging is very interesting but I get a kick out of getting the radio,
computer, and sensing gadgets working together happily. PID control comes
next if I can cram that into the Flash EEPROM. That algorithm should not
be too large but the various layers of the Ethernet protocol are memory
hogs.
Until next week: stay well or get well,
73,
Kevin. KD5ONS (Net Control Operator 5th Class)
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