[ADXA] Congrats to Joel and Steve, and 6M

Fri Jun 19 13:49:21 EDT 2020

EJ,

You have a very effective station on 6M now! You and Joel are “band openers”!  In openings like the ones we’ve had recently I always think…..I should have added one more section of 45G…..I should have opted for a 6L LFA vs 5L….even if it raised the odds of bending my 22ft mast!  I was tickled to get a couple of +00 and +02 reports from the LA/SM/OH group.  My surprise was SV9CVY.  He was decoded here for about 3 minutes and I managed to finish the Q before he was gone. I’ve worked Mike on six bands and four modes now!  Picked up LA2XPA, LA8AJA, LB6D, LA9DL, LA2IMA for a new 6M country and 3 new grids; OH1LEU and OH1O for new country and 2 new grids; ES5PC for new country and grid ( I think I worked him right after you and Joel).  Also worked SM/DL/PA/G…. countries I had confirmed.  Late in the afternoon I picked up P43A for a new country and grid.  So, five news ones and 7 new grids.  I missed XP3A (OX).  Answered his CQ and got an initial report but then he faded.  I missed pieces of the opening working to get ready for company.  Missed the JA opening last night ….designated driver to pick up take out food for our company!  I’ve picked up a few new PNW grids late in the evenings.  In a new twist, AG6EE, in DM19 went to 50.303 F/H for a while.  I saw Bill, K5FUV work him on F/H.  Apparently that didn’t work out well so he (AG6EE) came back to .313 a few minutes later.  

One if my biggest thrills lately was working EI3KD Sunday afternoon from my Rover.  I was on HWY 10 south of old Ft. Chaffee and had been working VE3s on 6M FT8  off the back of my Moxon  (driving west on 10 with Moxon facing forward in lowered position…about 5ft above the roof of the car).  One VE QSO was stalled so I spotted a home construction site with a nice driveway and pulled in to point East.  It was a great spot with the horizon visible almost all the way around.   I finished the Q with the VE3 and decided to stay a while and called CQ.  My first caller was EI3KD.  He was quite strong…about -08.  We completed quickly and I immediately thought someone was clowning with his call.  I had worked EI3KD last summer on 6M FT8 from home.  After the contest I browsed through the WSJT-X ALL.TXT file and found he had been on and worked other folks before calling me.  Also saw Nigel, G3TXF, with good signal levels.  My in motion FT8 operation is to call CQ (F1 with the alternate key bindings enabled) and see what I get!  Any more would be too distracting.  I run about 300W to a PAR Stressed Moxon on 6M.  My amp will run a little more but if I exceed 300W I start getting “Traction Control System Errors”!

The other thrill was getting a “point” from Rick, K5UR, during a 6M CW run during my Rove.  It is so cool to have Rick pop up during VHF contests.  It has happened on 6/2/222/70cm over the years.  That finished my day of working ham “celebrities”…(Tom, N1MM on SSB, Joe, K1JT via FT4 and Mr. Roderick, K5UR)  Also worked a previous ARRL President from six grids….W5ZN!  Roving is a lot of work but can be tons of fun. 

OK, someone else’s turn to brag!

73,

Pat, W5VY

From: EJ <ejj at suddenlink.net> 
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2020 9:11 AM
To: patw5vy at gmail.com; 'Rory Bowers' <k6cks01 at gmail.com>; 'Dennis Schaefer' <dennisw5rz at gmail.com>
Cc: 'adxa' <adxa at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: RE: [ADXA] Congrats to Joel and Steve, and 6M

Congrats to all you guys on the DX your working on 6.  I see ya in there.  Pat you got some good ones the other day! One nice thing about being on the same frequency is you know exactly what the other guys in the club are working

EJ  K5EJ

From: adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mailto:adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net>  [mailto:adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of patw5vy at gmail.com <mailto:patw5vy at gmail.com> 
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2020 8:34 AM
To: 'Rory Bowers' <k6cks01 at gmail.com <mailto:k6cks01 at gmail.com> >; 'Dennis Schaefer' <dennisw5rz at gmail.com <mailto:dennisw5rz at gmail.com> >
Cc: 'adxa' <adxa at mailman.qth.net <mailto:adxa at mailman.qth.net> >
Subject: Re: [ADXA] Congrats to Joel and Steve, and 6M

I found FT4 to be pretty effective at times during the VHF Contest.  The last hour I was on Rich Mtn, EM24, I made 39 FT4 QSOs.  That’s not a great rate but not bad for a Rover.  I had tried to get a run going on SSB but just couldn’t make it work.  Did S&P SSB for a while before moving to FT4.  After using FT4 for a while going back to FT8 really is like watching paint dry!  I worked K1JT on FT4!

73,

Pat, W5VY

From: adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mailto:adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net>  <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mailto:adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> > On Behalf Of Rory Bowers
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2020 8:07 AM
To: Dennis Schaefer <dennisw5rz at gmail.com <mailto:dennisw5rz at gmail.com> >
Cc: adxa <adxa at mailman.qth.net <mailto:adxa at mailman.qth.net> >
Subject: Re: [ADXA] Congrats to Joel and Steve, and 6M

I agree Dennis... major accomplishments!  I don't see a problem with spreading out FT8 on 6M.  I have yet to copy one station using FT4 on 6.  The mode is simply not effective on 6 so nobody is using it.  Why not take advantage of the additional spectrum when the band is very busy like it has been recently.  I feel the same about 20M FT8.  The spectrum between 14.077 and 14.080 is virtually unused.  In the most recent release of WSJT-X Joe suggested in his release notes that we should try 14.071 on a trial basis.  I thought this was a bad idea, the PSK guys are already there (14.070 - 14.073) and putting FT8 in the mix would cause major interference problems between incompatible modes.  I think some serious thought needs to be given to spectrum use to make it easier for all of us to make good contacts without worrying about QRM.

73 Dennis!

Rory, K5CKS

On Fri, Jun 19, 2020 at 6:29 AM Dennis Schaefer <dennisw5rz at gmail.com <mailto:dennisw5rz at gmail.com> > wrote:

Wow, 6 meters is letting people meet some major milestones!  Congratulations to Joel and Steve for big accomplishments.   That takes a lot of work and a lot of listening and station effectiveness.  

I probably copied  100 JA stations yesterday but couldn’t work anything with my pipsqueak station.  Signals were as good as -7 but typically -18 to -10.   Sometimes decoded a dozen in a sequence.   I don’t think my FT-991 would hold up at 100 watts output on FT8 so I usually run it at 40 or 50 watts.  I’m sure with a couple more elements and a few more watts, I could have worked some.  

I suspect the trend will eventually be to spread FT8 out between 313 and 323.  FT4 is right in the middle, though, so maybe FT8 covering 313 to 326 and FT4 above that.  I’m sure it will be evolving.

No JA’s heard on CW.  I probably didn’t have enough S/N to copy them on SSB, but CW would have been possible.
73,
Dennis
______________________________________________________________
ADXA mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/adxa
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:ADXA at mailman.qth.net <mailto:ADXA at mailman.qth.net> 

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/adxa/attachments/20200619/d3eb0ebe/attachment.html>