[ADXA] Fwd: From Paul AF5M, A Note from Randy N5LE (V73RY)

[Earl]

FYI !!
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----- Original Message -----
From: 'Randy Young' <n5le at surfbest.net>

Sent: Tue Oct 18 23:43
Subject: Fwd: Re: JOTA


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CQ CQ JOTA, this is Victor Seventy Three Romeo Yankee
Enjoyed hearing about your JOTA. Sounds like you did well even though
propogation was not that great. I went in Saturday afternoon(your early Sat
morning sleep time) and began making contacts with ZLs and VKs that were
working JOTA. They had been mostly making ZL to VK contacts and they jumped
at V73. They were giving me 30 over S9 signal reports. One station told me
the only station he had ever heard that was stronger than my signal was his
brother in law when he was talking on his mobile rig from his driveway.
Anyway about 6pm here 2 DLs and an IK announced (on the dX cluster) hearing
me long path into Europe. After that I had the 30 over 9 signals on my
radio......all QRM all the time from Europe. Anyway that wiped out my JOTA
QSOs so I announced I was going QRT. I listened for another 10 or 12
minutes and I was still getting calls from all over Europe. I would have
gladly worked the pileup if they had shown some courtesy and that's exactly
what I told them as I was QRTing.
The next day after church I went to the shack from 12 noon til about 4. I
had about 15 scouts and 7 leaders / parents come through. The timing was
really too late for stateside. We still worked station all over the western
US, Indianapolis,In....WB5BSA (the only 5 call heard) in Austin (or was it
Houston)....OA4JAM in Peru....VY1JA in the Yukon (they were
thrilled)...LX4JAM in Luxembourg...a bunch of Australia, New Zealand,
Japan,
Hawaii, Alaska...and a freighter K7HI going toward Los Angeles from China.
Also worked KH6BB (Missouri battleship in Pearl Harbor).......and they
called ME. During the few lulls I demoed PSK31 and CW and had the scouts
attempt to make there name appear on the computer screen by typing it
out on
cw (not many could do it. The only one that made it was a boy named
ASA...HIHI) I was not expecting any scouting activity on my Monday. I did
tell the scouts that the station would be open from 9-11 local time so I
felt obligated to open. I was planning to be on about 5 pm Arkansas time on
14.270-290.
When I got to the station I made a few routine calls on 20 meters. Then I
thought I would swing around the other bands. I started on 10 meters. It
seemed a little noisier than usual so I listened. I finally heard a CW
beacon from a W0 in Kansas so I tuned up and gave out a CQ. I was answered
by a strong station in Washington that said he was amazed at a 30 over S9
signal coming in from that distance. I worked the pileup from there. I
logged 120 contacts in the next 30 minutes. I worked several Mississippi's,
abunch of Okies, Texans and Mo's......but not one Arkie...and I stopped and
asked occasionally. When the roar subsided I was asked to go to 17 meters.
So I loaded up the G5RV and made several contacts there.
The ham experience from V73 is not like any ham radio experience I have
ever
had. I had a pileup every time I announced V73RY. when I announced that I
was doing the JOTA from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Test site I was
even more piled up.
Probably not much time for hamming this week end and then the CQWW contest
next weekend. I plan to do a casual contest....maybe some late night
experimenting in there somewhere. Maybe I'll try to work 100 coutries in a
weekend. Who knows.
While I'm rambling about ham fun, I'll tell you I stumbled across a gold
mine this week. An old Conex container that they used to store some of our
club stuff and leftovers from Johnston Island. It contained "old antenna
stuff " that the radio club could have if needed. It had a giant military
log periodic in it that was damaged by a fork lift. It also
had......................drumroll.................a new TH7DXX still in the
original box......a TH11DXX still in the box......a Telex 2 element 40
meter
beam still in the box. It also had radio logbooks from 1959. And too much
stuff that I couldn't get to. Anyway I am hoping to find a good heavy duty
rotor in there somewhere. If we do I'll be taking down a TH7DXX that is
showing some deteriation and putting up the TH11DXX. Anyway as soon as I
recruit some help....here we go again.
Ya'll continue to keep in touch now, ya hear.
73
Randy V73RY




-- 
Earl F. Smith - N5ZM
PO Box 20065
White Hall, AR  71612-0065