[ADXA] 6M - Last comments.....Promise

[patw5vy at gmail.com]

One last post about 6M.  Yesterday I worked Martin, GM8IEM, in Clashmore,
Lochinver, in extreme NW Scotland on 6M FT8.  I was stationed at RAF Edzell
in the lowlands of Scotland during my Navy enlistment in the late '60s.  The
runways at RAF Edzell were closed and a big Circular Disposed Antenna Array
was built.  The base was about 10 miles inland from the North Sea.  This was
during Vietnam and at the height of the "Cold War" so you can guess who we
were listening to.  Google "AN/FRD-10".  I worked shifts and had a couple of
days off between shift cycles.  I had a right hand drive VW Bug and used my
days off to explore Scotland.  I drove pretty far up the NW coast to the
town of Ullapool. The west coast of Scotland is a bit like our Pacific
Northwest coast.raw and beautiful.   Martin, GM8IEM, lives about 45 miles
north of Ullapool.  I sent him an email telling of my visit to Ullapool and
the Isle of Skye. He answered my email and it turns out Martin was a
Chartered Engineer,  (our Prof Engineer) doing RF Design  for Plessy/Siemens
in the south of England and took early retirement in 1999.  He is an avid
Medium Wave DXer..AM Broadcast band.  He chose his location in Scotland to
be an optimum, low noise, location to do world wide AM band DXing.  He has
beverages for the BC band in several directions.  He is the first operator
in the UK to hear AM Broadcast stations in New Zealand since the 1930s.  He
has heard stations in Hawaii, West Coast of USA.all around the world.
Martin took a grand bus tour of the US back in the late 60s.got as close as
Kansas City to AR.   

 

Today I worked Clive, GM3POI, on Orkney Island.  Clive and I had breakfast
one morning in the Crown Plaza in Dayton.  I think it was about five years
ago.  He is an interesting fellow and I remember his comparison of Dayton to
Friedrichshafen (Big EU Ham Radio gathering is southern Germany).  His
assessment of Hara Arena was the equivalent of an outhouse!  But, there was
lots of cool stuff and folks at Dayton that made up for it. 

 

I love ham radio and the connections it generates.

 

Today, I wasn't the "Big Gun" on 6M.  Frank, W5BPT, who live 12 airline
miles from me was hearing/working EU stations that I wasn't hearing at all.
That went on for 30 minutes before the "spotlight" shined on me.  Also, I
heard Joel, W5ZN working Ukraine.no joy here.  As Bill, K5FUV, posted.it's
all about propagation.  I do think that having a decent antenna and a bit of
power can help squeeze a QSO out of the "gray area" between good propagation
and no propagation. 

 

73,

Pat, W5VY

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