[ADXA] Propagation fun

[sbranyan at cox.net]

I was listening to a ham on 28.485 MHz a little while ago. He had a pretty
good signal at times. He was speaking slowly and repeating himself a lot. I
didn't ever hear his callsign, location or the other party. He said the
electric lines in his community must date back to the 1930s. He noted there
were places where exposed copper wires on the poles have turned green and a
few places where the ground wires have broken and fallen onto the roofs.
This makes me think he was a DX station.

He said the propagation was such that the signal would fade and he would
miss a word from the other ham every now and then. But if he talked with a
longer transmission and repeated himself, when he turned it back over the
other ham 50 percent of the time the other guy's signal would be stronger
and 50 percent of the time weaker. He said, "You had asked a question on
your last TX and when it came to the critical word of the question, you
faded and I missed it. It was a question, 'Have you ever heard ...' and then
no copy. So I am hoping when I turn it back over you, your signal will
improve and I will be able to catch the critical word in your question.
Over."

 

After a pause for the other ham, he comes back and says, "Unfortunately I
missed it again." I have a handheld recorder here with a very small 1/2"
speaker and I recorded your TX and this is what it sounded like." He plays
the recording and sure enough it was, "I said, 'Have you ever heard of
...'." and then loud static! hihi

 

He continues "So try it again. Over." After another pause, he says (I am
missing every 3-4 of his words now), "I got it! You said, 'Have you ever
heard of ...'." Then his signal fades and I missed what he said!!! LOL

 

But his fellow ham must have asking about another  particular ham, because I
then hear  my by-now familiar companion say this time, "I've never heard of
... (fade), but maybe you have heard this guy. Standby." He plays a brief
muffled recording of a ham with a distinct Caribbean accent and says, "This
fellow was the first member kicked off the ten cent (might have been the
"ten-ten") club." 

 

I am rolling on the floor laughing at this point. His signal is fading and I
turn off the radio to recoup. Propagation has such a sense of humor and
radio is so much fun!!!

 

Have a great day listening and 73.

Scott/W5AAJ

 

 

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