[Elecraft] Conditions, shmonditions: DXing anyway

[Wayne Burdick]

Tonight I heard a very weak CW CQ on 7.007 MHz right around sundown -- LA1MFA (Norway). With the filtering on the K3S dialed down to 100 Hz, 30 Hz audio peaking filter (APF) turned on, and the noise blanker optimized, he was readable. I called and he came right back to me. 

I would normally have tried this at 10 watts first, but something about the tenuous nature of conditions these days had me cranking the power up to 100 W from the get-go. 

Despite requiring "full" power to make this contact, it was a reminder that DX is out there if you tune slowly....

On a related topic, I discovered that as a guy of a certain age, 400 Hz may be a better pitch for copying weak signals than my usual 550 Hz. This could be a well-understood psychoacoustic phenomenon, but it came as a pleasant surprise.

73,
Wayne
N6KR