Good Evening,
Chilly once again. Rainy then sunny but still cold to chilly. Luckily I
can heat one room with my computer :) I am holding off with lighting a fire
but there is still a pile of wood ready if I lose my resolve. When I travel
into town the weather has been milder but still not too warm. The hummingbirds
are zipping by the window checking me out as I write. The feeder is getting
low so I know the defense perimeter has grown larger. More species have
arrived and are ready to assume dominance.
Lower the foxgloves (digitalis purpurea) have begun to bloom. Up here I
have not seen any yet but soon they will start. Pat told me her seasonal
indicator was the flowering stalk of the foxgloves. As the blossoms get closer
and closer to the top of the spike the summer is getting closer to being over.
So, once they get started I know how long I have until the weather goes back to
wet and cold. Hopefully soon it will stop being wet and cold!
Propagation was not too bad on twenty meters this week. My mentor finished
building his new K3/10 and has been practicing with the button pushing and knob
twisting. Yesterday I had my first contact with him through the QSB, QRN, and
QRM. It sounded good. I know one day he will get an amp for it so he'll go to
QRO (100 watts) but for now it is good test of my ears. Since I have worked
with him so long I can copy him even deeper into the noise than I can the
average operator. May be a little ESP because we know each other's topics so
well ;)
My MARS checkins, on the other hand, have been quite difficult. I hear the
NCS station very well and very loudly but they cannot hear me. Often it takes
twenty calls to get relayed to the NCS. I think they are running very high
power with less than adequate antennas. Fortunately the folks who study
sunspots write that the hiatus is due to end soon. That may help us in MARS to
be heard and allow the rest of us to make more distant contacts. Reports of 10
meter and 6 meter sporadic E contacts have been numerous this week as well as a
few contacts on 2 meters.
Please join us tomorrow evening.
1) Hail signs (first letter or two of the suffix of your call)
2) NCS help (as well as QSP/QNP <relay> help)
Sunday 2300z (Sunday 4 PM PDT) 14050 kHz
Monday 0100z (Sunday 6 PM PDT) 7045 kHz
Stay well,
Kevin. KD5ONS
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