July 20, 2014 Six Meter Opening

This past weekend (July 19-20, 2014)was a flurry of activity in a short period of time. Company in the house had kept time before the radios to a minimum, but a short period Sunday afternoon more than made up for it.

A friend  had antenna trouble earlier in the week and I managed to take time off from visiting to run by his house and help him trouble shoot the problem. During the course of the visit, we talked about six meters and talked about a quick way to get an antenna up for at least listening on the band. The idea of a wire antenna was already on the table because of my somewhat success in using my 90 foot sloper as an interim antenna on six and the discussion turned in that direction.

We looked at how it is common practice to use a forty meter antenna on fifteen meters. The third harmonic relationship of those two bands means that a half wave antenna on forty becomes a 3/2 wave antenna on fifteen, matching fifty ohms rather closely on both bands. In fact, any half number of half waves will do the same.

Looking at his space available, it was determined that there was room for a 7/2 waves antenna for six meters, it turning out to be about 63 feet long. Interestingly enough, this also would make the antenna useful in the forty meter 'phone band! It was decided he would try putting it up in an inverted Vee configuration as is common for HF operation.

Sunday afternoon, he told me that he had the antenna up and it matched up pretty well without a tuner on six.. As I returned from a road trip taking our visitors back, I got a text from him, first saying he had worked a South Carolina station ( from his  Central Texas QTH) on six with good signals and that there appeared to be a contest on. Just a short time later he had worked 12 stations in 7 states. The top of the wire was probably about 30 feet up.

I checked the contest calendar as I settled back in and noticed that it was the weekend for the CQ World Wide VHF Contest...but it was ending just as I sat down. Since my friend had mentioned the band was open, I decided to tune through the band anyway, if nothing else to see if a few beacons were coming through. I also figured that if the band was really open, a few operators would continue to try to work some VHF DX even if the contest period was over.

Turned out I was right on both counts. Just tuning up from the bottom of the band up to the area where I often hear beacons ( 50060-50080) I quickly ran into an extremely strong signal from WZ8D, on 50067.25 indicated on the R-75 Signal was S-9, sometimes hitting 10 DB over S-9! Yep, there was a band opening! This was at 2106 GMT, just six minutes past the end of the contest.

The receiver was in the wide bandwidth, and I could hear another somewhat weaker signal adjacent, so switching in the 250 Hz filters, it was easy to separate out WA3TTS/B, another beacon on 50068.5 indicated, not quite as strong, but very respectable.

Over the next half hour or so, the following appeared in the reception log ( all times GMT)

2108 W8IF/B 50079.25 579 CW Beacon
2112 WD8CW 50098.2 559 CW calling CQ
2113 K8LEE 50077.9 589 CW Calling CQDX
2114 N5DG 50104.5 549 CW Calling CQDX
(very weak at times, deep fading and a flutter, almost buzz modulated-backscatter?)
2115 K4RX 50103.5 559 CW Calling CQDX
2121 AC4TO 50107 539 CW working another station
2123 AB5EB 50106.25 559 CW Calling CQ DX(fluttery)
2124 KB9AX 50106.5 589 CW Signing with another station
2129 KD8NYL 50130.2 57 SSB In QSO
2130 K4RX 50103.2 589 CW Calling CQDX
2133 WA9IOC 50094 579
2134 W9CPV 50093.25 569 CW
2135 WR9L/B 50074.4 579C CW Beacon
2136 W0FY 50074.4 579 CW Beacon
2137 K0KP 50073.4 589 CW Beacon
2141 K8TB 50065.3 549 CW Beacon
2142 W8EH 50060.6 579 CW Beacon
2144 W0ZF 50128.1 58 SSB
2147 KG9Z 50096.1 579 CW CQ

It might be worth watching the VHF publications and other blogs, because I heard some of the stations apparently working Europeans, though they were not audible to me. I heard at least two stations appearing to exchange signal reports with an ON station and one with an Italian.

It was also interesting to note that relatively nearby stations ( near in the overall scheme of things, not actually local in the Waco area) were obviously multi path back scatter signals with echo, flutter and almost a sound of being modulated by a buzz.

 

I continue to be intrigued about the idea of using long wire antennas for VHF. There is gain to be had and the multiplicity of lobes makes reception from various directions possible.  It can also allow operation or reception quickly without complicated antenna construction.  Not to say that it would equal stacked multi element yagis, but the inability to get those up should not be a reason not to get on the air or to listen. Feedline does become a consideration, however, as losses at these frequencies are higher and at least a fair match is necessary to avoid even greater losses. open wire line might be a consideration and experimentation is on tap for that here.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone else who noted this opening or others, particularly anyone in Europe who noted it or even heard some US stations.

This opening was particularly interesting because this week has been marked by a very quiet sun, few if any sunspots. All during the week, the upper bands have been poor or totally silent here, thought 20 meters has continued to surprise with openings to Russia and Asia in the 0200-0300 time period.

I hope to have more time to explore what is going on with the bands this week. This past week was filled with visiting grandbabies, and after all, this is “ just a hobby.”

Wake Me When the Band Opens

Wake Me When the band Opens

Sometimes we need to be awakened when the bands are open. It might not seem there is much there and it becomes easy to doze at the controls and just go off and do something else. Maybe we are just hearing the same old stations or maybe we get a little jaded and long for the “real DX” when there is still plenty to be had right in front of us. Maybe we just need to listen a little deeper into the noise. Sometimes it can be a matter of looking back over old waters that we thought had been fished out.

Such was the case this past weekend when C1AT, my second op, found the bands a little boring. The past several days—in fact most of the past week—had seen the low frequencies clobbered with QRN. Static crashes from thunderstorms had entered the headphones and were like a hammer that delivered well directed blows to the head.

So when the weekend came, C1AT suggested starting at mid day with a WWV sweep to see if the higher bands held promise. There was supposed to be a high level of solar activity toward the end of the week and if there were indeed blackouts perhaps the residual ionization might make the high bands better a few days later.

Starting the sweep at 25 MHz was not promising. WWV was a just audible carrier and no signs of WWVH. The 20 MHz stop showed a very strong WWV at S-9+ and very steady, indicative of good short skip. At that point C1AT yawned. OK, lets check 15 MHz. Hmm, S-9 +20DB with WWV on top and WWVH just barely audible behind. At this point C1AT put her head on her paws and uttered tose words,

“Wake me up when the bands open.”

Of course for real DX at midday in Central Texas ( 1700 GMT) it was hardly worth checking 10 MHZ, but I gave it a whirl: WWV was along at S-9+20 DB and steady, and just barely audible at 5 MHz, inaudible at 2.5.

A quick check of 6 meters, looking for some Sporadic E almost woke the cat up. There did not appear to be any activity to speak of and one beacon came through: W3DOG/B on 50017. As soon as she heard that call sign, she cafe a sniff and dropped back off. A swing though the phone band found one station calling CQ on 50135. A little adrenalin pumped when I heard “ Kilo papa 4” a few times with an incomplete call. Turned out to be a KP4/W3. Still DX by 6-meter standards, but short of entering the “ countries” column. And he faded quickly and disappeared, leaving a sea of white noise very conducive to snoozing.

A sweep of 10 meters saw little activity. Many beacons were there, but most operators must have been lulled to sleep by DX boredom. How could they? The band was obviously open to much of the US and the XE1RCS beacon on 28183.4 was quite strong. The somewhat chirpy but very familiar sound of the PY2WFG beacon was there on 29203.3. The West Coast was represented by K6LLL/B on 28203.5 almost colliding with him. And YV5LIX was very strong on 28215. There were other beacons audible from various call areas of the US, at least one other XE a VE7 and a few other Brazilians. Where were the “ live operators”?

Snoozing, I guess.

A trip to 12 meters found no signals at all. None! Fifteen was pretty light. A “7” on SSB along with a TG9 from Guatemala. Slipping down to the cw portion, at 1732 found a station involved in an obvious rag chew style contact, very strong, very steady. Was this another Stateside short skip station? Probably. C1AT snoozed on. But wait! When he signed, it was F6FPU! France with a good, strong, steady signal into Texas. The W3 station he was working was weak and warbly, sure signs of the band being very, very long.

But that was all. Further up the band, there were numerous strong US stations around 21050 taking part in the Weekend Sprint contest for straight key operators. NC1M was 599+20 DB! Maybe the W3 above had just had his beam turned toward Europe and had little signal toward Texas. Maybe C1AT was right. The eyelids were getting a little heavy from hearing the steady “ hiss” from the receiver undisturbed by DX dits and dahs.

Lets check 17 meters. A little excitement when an EA9 showed up with a little pileup on 18070.6, then CT8/DL5NUA on 18075.2 with a fair signal, followed by DL1MD...but then not much.

When one pond shows no fish, try something else. Lets go looking for SWBC stations. Its been awhile since we had done a good sweep of the higher SWBC bands in mid day.

Thirteen meters is the first stop. Will anything be there?

1758 GMT RNE 21610 S-9 Noblejas, Spain

1800 GMT WHRI 21600 S-7 Cypress Creek USA

And that was that! OK, lets look at 16 meters:

1804 (All GMT) VOA 17895 S-9+20db Greenville USA

1805 BBCWS(FR) 17885 S-9 QSB Ascension
1806 RNE 17850 S-9+10DB Noblejas, Spain
1807 WRMI 17790 S-9+30 DB Okeechobee, USA
1809 RNE 17755 S-6 Noblejas, Spain
1810 RNE 17715 S-9 QSB Noblejas, Spain
1812 AIR (!!) 17670 S-5 QSB Dehli, India

Ah, one little jewel. The lists show this last one to be a non directional service. Maybe a yawner to some, but it made at least an interesting entry. The rest of the session was spent with a sweep of 19 meters that did not turn up anything earth shattering, but was still useful to stay familiar with the band. There was one nice logging at 1818 on 15650 from Greece and another of the VOA station in Botswana at 1820 on 15580 that took a little digging to hear well enough to ID, peakinga bout S-5. The rest were routine except for Radio Sultanate of Oman at 1835 on 15140 with a very nice signal.

Not earth shattering DX, but still a fun couple hours in front of the radio. And yet another lesson in finding DX when the band does not appear to be exactly hopping. Even afer all these years, signals from Botswana and Oman are still pretty exciting.

And C1AT? She said to wake her up when Masterpiece Theater came on...

Flashback: The Doomed Beam Antenna

A few months into my Novice amateur radio career, I was beginning to feel the nibblings of the DX bug pretty bad. A magazine article and a project in the ARRL Antenna Book had me anxious to try building a small beam antenna. The antenna had a small boom and a moderate amount of gain and appeared to be something we could build at home. It was thus that at age 13, my first beam project lived, and died.

The antenna was a two element phased affair known as the “ ZL Special”. I am not sure where the name came from but it brought forth visions of working many of them on fifteen meters. There are literally dozens of articles about the design on the internet now, but then all I had was a few paragraphs in the ARRL Antenna Handbook ( 1961 Edition!)

The antenna is basically two folded dipoles spaced a short distance apart and connected with a transposed phasing line. The articles about it indicated that this resulted in a 135-degree phase difference between the elements. It can be built like a small two element yagi, and fed directly with 52 or 75 ohm line.

I had planned to make it with two pieces of TV twin lead and just hang it in the air, then wondered aloud if it could be made with a wood frame to support the elements. My dad once again jumped into the project and we soon had a frame built out of material from his carpenter's equivalent to a parts “ junk box”. He had material stored that was left over from numerous past projects and remodel jobs. It was to be a lesson in antenna construction for both of us.

It was decided the antenna would be mounted on one of the wood masts for my longwire. The longwire I had was suspended between two wooden masts consisting of 2X4's using rebar as steep angle guys.( My dad never built anything half-way. Those masts had triangular concrete foundations) It would be supported by a short piece of water pipe that would be attached to the mast with a pair of angle iron brackets that would be placed around the mast rather than weaken the wood mast by drilling holes through it. The angle iron came from an old bed frame that turned out to be a source of hardware for a number of antenna projects over the years!

The boom for the antenna was only about five feet long and was to be a 2X4 with a threaded floor flange being the means of attaching it to the water pipe support. The elements would be the twin lead supported by thin rippings of redwood. The twin lead was tied to the supports with monofilament fishing line at about six inch intervals. It was fed with 75 ohm twin lead. This and all my antenna projects were low budget, all built with what was available. The 75 ohm twin lead was two cents per foot in 1963.

The antenna masts were both already designed to be tilt-over affairs so attaching the antenna assembly was not too difficult. It took us the better part of a Saturday to put the beast together and get it into the back yard. At that point we learned just what “heavy duty construction” means.

Dark was falling when we were finally ready to raise the antenna. In order to lift all the weight of the wood mast, we got on the roof to pull on a rope attached to the top of the mast. W had the mast sitting it up on a sawhorse to have it off the ground a bit and to give us a little better pulling angle. Once we got it vertical, it was a matter of putting in a locking pin through the lower part of the mast and reattaching the guy lines. The masts were guyed with pieces of iron reinforcement rod such as is used in concrete and came down within two feet of the base of the mast, making the mast almost like a small tower. My dad really did not like the idea of wire guy lines cluttering up the yard.

There was no rotator for the antenna. We had a light rope dropped to allow the antenna to be pulled in different directions then tied off. It was about 22-feet off the ground. The brackets holding the mast were larger than the mast pipe with a sleeve pipe over it, allowing the antenna mast freedom of motion. The lower of the two brackets supported its weight on an old wheel bearing. My dad was pretty resourceful about such things.

There was little wind when we got the antenna in place. It was also about dark. It would be the next day before the trouble showed up.

Because it was after dark, the 15-meter band was dead and devoid of signals with which to test the antenna. It tuned up fine, actually loading up much easier than the longwires did on 15 meters. It also showed much less power line noise than did the wires. That might have been because it was directional and was turned at right angles to the power lines.

I called a friend of mine across town to get on the air to try it out. I started out with it turned toward him. He was across Waco from me, probably about 12 miles away by air. The initial word was good. I was much stronger there than I had been on my old inverted V and somewhat stronger than on the longwires. Turning the antenna 180 degrees showed a good drop in signal and turning it 90 degrees to him had me almost disappearing. The initial feeling was that it was working well.

The big test would be the next day. I had a weekly schedule with a station in the state of Washington and that would tell the tale of whether the antenna would really work better than what I had been using. Images of large numbers of DX QSL cards began to appear in my head.

The next morning, the wind was up a bit. As we backed out of the driveway to go to church, my dad and I noticed that the elements were hopping a bit in the wind. He noted that they appeared to catch the wind quite a bit.

By the time we got back from church, the wind had picked up quite a bit. I went out back to try to turn the antenna to the northwest to set up for my schedule. It was a real fight getting it swung around. Winds were up around 20 to 30 miles per hour by that time and it was obvious that something about the wood elements was really catching the wind. The ends were moving a foot or more up and down continuously. The wood mast was creaking and swinging within the constrains of its guys.

About that time, my friend had driven over to see what we had built and as he and my dad came out it was obvious that the antenna or mast might not survive. Rather than loose the whole thing, it was decided to try to take it down.

That decision was almost a disaster in itself. It took all three of us hanging on ropes to lower the mast that by that time was bucking and twisting wildly. We got the thing down, took the brackets off the mast and raised it back up where it seemed to heave a sigh of relief at just holding up the wires again.

The doomed ZL Special never came up off the ground again. Within days it was disassembled and the twin lead went into my own parts junk box for use another day. Thus were lessons learned at an early age about light weight antenna construction and the effects of wind loading!

New Operating Position

This week I had time to spend in front of the radios following a complete makeover of a room in our house--new paint, new floor, a long awaited removal of a bar that opened an alcove and a place to bring the radios into a designed for usage, real indoor shack. I wonder how many of you have a planned area for the radios or if they just find a place to land and get used there?

My dad had built a desk for my radios several years ago, but for the past 25 or so it has been used more as a bookcase and "business" desk and a place for the computer. Now its being used for which it was designed. I have my primary radios all in one place ( though if my life is any indicator, there may be some shuffling later!) sitting on a slightly elevated shelf with the knobs at the right height, accessories with their own shelf and spaces, holes for cables, good place for a desk lamp and clock. It's wonderful! And it only took 16 years to get done!

Radio Desk

For now the primary radios are a Yaesu FT-757-GX for both hamming and SWL DX with special filters for SSB and CW, my Icom R-75 with dual 250 Hz cw filters and special AM and SSB filters in a modification, an old Icom 251 all mode 2 meter rig for SSB and CW DX and an old favorite, my Hallicrafters SX-96 for SWBC and BCB-DX...all in a row. Some of my other receivers are stacked above along with a couple transmitters.  You might recognize a Heathkit DX-40, Knight VFO, Drake 2B with Q-multiplier and speaker, MacKay vintage shipboard receiver. Eico 723 transmitter and 722 VFO and a fifties vintage Montgomery Ward Airline broadcast receiver.

I wonder why this took so long! There are even good places for current logbooks and my cw keys that can be far enough back for my forearm to be comfy. And there is a great spot for the flat screen computer monitor at eye level out of the way of the radios! My late dad would be proud to see it put to its proper use. And I am amazed at the thought he put into designing the desk for best use. Anyone else designed a special shack? Or like my old ones, did it just grow on its own? Now if I just had the matching Hallicrafters speaker to go with the SX-96....


Second Op-C1AT

May Six Meter Sporadic E Opening!

I have been intrigued by Sporadic-E propagation since my youth and experiences with TV-DX-ing ( seen an earlier post that details those exciting days!) I don't know if anyone has a definitive answer as to just what causes Sporadic E, though there has been speculation ranging from thunderstorms to short, high bursts of energy from the sun to “just because” or “they just happen”.

In any event, they do occur and appear to be the result of high ionization areas or clouds in the E layer that appear sporadically ( hence the name). These openings result in localized higher than normal maximum useable frequencies that can affect signals beginning about 2 mHz up through the VHF range. Activity up through six meters and up to about 70 mHz is fairly common, though there have been occasions of Sporadic E extending up into the FM broadcast band ( 88-108 mHz in the U.S.) or even occasionally up into the 2 meter amateur band ( 144 mHz).

I have noticed the best Sporadic E openings beginning in the month of May and extending throughout the summer, to about mid August in North America. At least that is the time frame I have made the most loggings by this mode. That is not to say that such openings do not occur other times of the year. I have noticed a few even in the dead of winter. Others may have noticed more in other parts of the year. My observations might also have been affected by the time I had available to look for them or just lack of noticing.

I had begun tuning up through six meters back in April, looking for beacon signals, but other than the local ground wave available signals had not heard anything. I had also begun checking DX Summit for such things.

It was just such a check that led me to tune up to six meters this Sunday (18 May local time) I had not been in front of the radios on Saturday because of a trip out of town to one of the grandbaby's birthday party ( this IS just a hobby and there ARE priorities!! :-) ). But after getting back late Saturday night and before getting into bed about midnight ( the 200 mile trip each way in one day is rather tiring) I did make a check of DX Summit to see if there had been anything unusual. There I found a number of entries of 6 meter activity that had continued not just through the day but well into the night.

Sunday afternoon was the first time that it became possible to get in front of the radios. Just a quick tune through the band resulted in the “find” of a strong SSB signal on 50140 in the form of AG6V at 2206 GMT, then going back down the band, a very strong CQ on CW from XE2CQ ( nice call!) above S-9 on 50104 at 2211 GMT. Over the next few minutes the following stations were heard. Times are, of course, GMT.

2212 AI6O 50097.14 CW 579QSB “CQ”

2216 AA4CF 50097.54 CW 559 “CQ”
2219 KD4AOZ/B 50061.26 CW 559QSB BEACON
2222 K4TQR 50050.34 CW 569 BEACON
2227 N4LR/B 50068.42 CW 549 BEACON
2228 WN6K 50098.00 CW 559 “CQ” DM13
2230 N4KH 50097.4 CW 599QSB “CQ” EM64
2233 XE1RCS/B 50019.43 CW 549 BEACON EK09
2242 N4LR/B 50068.41 CW 569 BEACON EM73

Further tuning around at that time resulted in no new signals, but Sporadic E lived up to its name: signals would go from barely audible to over S-9 in seconds, stay up there perhaps a minute, then plunge to the edge of audibility.

By the way the set up for logging these stations was the Icom R-75 in the wide cw bandwidth or the wide SSB bandwidth and connected to an 80 meter sloper at the high end up about 45 feet, sloping down toward the East.  I am in Waco, Texas in EM11.

After an hour or so break, I came back to the radio just to see if the band was still open. Surprisingly, it was! Some signals were surprisingly strong, especially since I had not set up the feedline for the antenna for VHF work. Normally for day to day HF work the antenna comes to the shack in about a 175 foot run of RG-8X routed out of the way around the edge of the yard. The line loss at the lower HF frequencies is tolerable in that length of line. Usually when I plan to listen on 6 meters, I disconnect the longer line and run the shorter 75 foot line directly across the yard, suspended across what is normally a walkway to reduce the losses. Of course it cannot be left that way. Perhaps this summer another support will have to sprout next to the shack window by the house with a “proper” six meter antenna on it and a short length of heliax to feed it.

This time, the Mexican and West coast stations did not appear, and interestingly, some Texas stations only moderate distances were heard. I am certain they were not coming ground wave, but perhaps by Sporadic E back scatter. The distances from Dallas, New Braunfels and San Antonio were far too short for Sporadic E into Waco. I am not sure about one particularly strong station heard from Brownsville at the far southern tip of the state.

Here are the loggings, again with times GMT, and now past 7 PM local CDT and into May 19 GMT.

0047 KS4L 50095.6 CW 559 “CQ”

0053 W0OOG 50097.6 CW 549 “CQ”
0054 AB4B 50095.27 CW 589 “CQ” EM64
0055 K5HTI 50125.6 USB 55
0056 K5HGX 50125.6 USB 55 EM11
0056 W9CAR 50125.6 USB 58/59 TN
0057 AB4B 50132.7 USB 57 “CQ”
0058 N4IM 50132.7 USB 54
0059 W4BAB 50145.7 USB 57
0104 AA9RN 50155.2 USB 57
0105 AB5EW 50150.2 USB 56 EL09
0105 W4BAB 50150.2 USB 57
0106 NE4TN 50150.2 USB 57
0108 W5QQ 50132.9 USB 55
0110 KA5GNM 50130.3 USB 58
0112 W4AQQ 50132.7 USB 58
0112 AB4B 50132.7 USB 58
0122 K4EJQ 50095.8 CW 599 RUNNING 1 KW AND 6 EL.
0123 AF5FM 50098.6 CW 579
0125 AB5EB 50150.5 USB 55 EL09
0129 W4VAS 50145.25 USB 56 EM74
0129 W4SOH 50145.25 USB 57 EM76
0131 K4MVL 50145.25 USB 57
0132 W3DP 50125.25 USB 57
0134 N9JED 50125.25 USB 55
0134 W4IMD 50125.25 USB 59+
0136 N4BAF 50135.15 USB 57

At this point, other activities required the listening session to end. I noticed on DX Summit the next day during daylight and early evening in Europe, many postings of stations working over similar or greater signals. I noticed several times stations calling CQ with no takers. Perhaps many people were unaware the opening was even occurring!

This is, indeed, Sporadic E season, such as I enjoyed in my young days of TV DX-ing, but with six meters, the band can appear open even when the Maximum Useable Frequency would not be high enough to even put a single rolling bar through an analog tv picture!

I would be very interested in hearing some of your signals heard on six meters the past few days and in the days to come. Just drop a note through comments. Include your email address if you want ( it will not be posted, all comments are reviewed before going up) and I will email you back with my personal email address. I would be interested in hearing about the openings and would also be happy to add your loggings to a future posting on the blog! The same goes for DX on any other mode, as well...HF amateur DX, Shortwave Broadcast, Medium Wave Broadcast, TVDX or NDB's. Would love to hear from you!

73 and good listening!

Waking up May

A couple nights after the May-opening debacle, it was with some trepidation that I sat down in front of the radios. After months and months of poo-pooing those who said that the cycle was on the downslide and arguing that the bands were still hot, I had had my confidence in them shaken a bit. So instead of running back to find the goodies, it was time to sort of sneak up on it a bit.

To that end, as the dial lights came up on the R-75 with its memory taking it back to the 3 mHz range, I thought that would be a good place to start the WWV sweep to get a sense of what was going on. It was the night of May 2^nd Central Daylight Time, just at dark, or 0200 GMT. As usual, all times are GMT.

0202 WWV 2500 S-9+20DB ( low bands OK!)

0203 WWV 5000 S-9+20DB
0204 WWV 10000 S-9+40 DB ( first hop very good!)
0205 WWV 15000 S-9+30DB (higher bands not struggling!)
0205 WWVH 15000 Strong behind WWV—not just a first hopper!
0206 WWV 20000 S-5 But steady...hope for the higher bands!
0206 WWV 25000 Inaudible, but might not be on the air this late

Well, let's just see if the Maximum Useable Frequency is lower or if WWV 25 mHz is just off the air! ( according to their website, WWV 25 was just on limited hours). Punch 24890 into the R-75's keypad and hit “ enter”. Well, there is some atmospheric noise when the antenna is connected, Tuning up from the bottom of the band with the bandwidth wide open...nothing. What's this? Are folks not expecting it to be open and just not here? Is the band open to some watery, unpopulated area of the Pacific? Cruising slowly up the band the noise starts dipping rhythmically.

Something is hitting the AGC on the edge of the passband. Anticipating leads to faster tuning and sure enough there are multiple stations dropping in callsigns. Something is in there. Some of the stations calling are JA's but can't break any callsigns out. Are they calling some North American station that I would not be able to hear? No! Under the pile was ZL3PAH on 24911.3. To coin a phrase, “the deaths of 10 and 12 were greatly exaggerated”! But there were not a lot of stations in there...I did pull out the callsign of JA2FJP, then WA7NBU came blasting in at RST599+10 DB. First hoppers were still stronger. But the main thing was, the band was still open even if folks weren't taking advantage.

Let's slip down to 15. Band noise is there but only one station head on CW: LU9MDH at 0215 on 21020, RST559 with lots of QSB. Not one to give up right away, I kept running up and down the band and did eventually find another station at 0218. Asiatic Russia in the form of RV9CX on 21027.5 with flutter calling CQ. No takers.

Well, maybe as dark progresses the band really is starting to tank. Let's drop to 17. Coming up from the bottom I hit a fair signal from RZ0AF on 18070, another Asiatic Russian, again with a fading, flutery signal. Is this the way its going to be? Band openings just to the west, toward the sun? Up just a bit at 0220 finds WA1EHV on 18072.6, very strong, very steady. So it looks like the first hop stuff is doing better than the DX. If the Asiatic Russians are weak will that be all there is? But wait! As he signs, the station he is working pops up with a lot of flutter at RST549. Drat! As luck would have it, he fades a bit just as he is signing and I miss the prefix, just getting the last part: “3DX”. But “ don't touch that dial!” If he was a US station too close or on backscatter, he will be gone. But if he was a DX station that held the frequency before working the WA1, one should wait. Maybe he will call CQ in search of another hunter. Wait, wait, wait...THERE HE IS! He is calling CQDX with a quick

turnaround and I missed the prefix again. Was it an EA? Wait, here he goes again. ES3DX! Estonia. Now the question is, was the band somehow open to Europe short path, or was this ES3 coming longpath?

Let's tune around a bit and see if we can figure it out. Up at 18087 there is another station calling CQDX. Is this another European, indicating maybe a shortpath opening? Nope. RU9HM, another Asiatic Russian. Moving up and down the band, nothing much else shows up except W1AW on 18097.5 at RST569. No other Europeans. Hmmmm, chalk this up as a good maybe at longpath!

OK, let's try 20 meters. By now its 0224. If this is a “sun only” opening, there should be only Asian stations, and maybe weak fluttering Europeans long path. But as you can see from the loggings below, its really ambiguous. All times GMT, all on R-75 and sloper:

0224 RA3RLP 14002 RST 539,flutter calling CQ Russia

0225 UA1APX 14003.13 RST579 qsb Russia
0225 K9LZJ 14003.3 RST539 flutter, backscatter? Working the UA1
0226 DL1NKS 14007 RST589 steady Germany
0226 K0DU/QRP 14007 RST569 working the DL1 USA
0228 W9FAM 14009.2 RST589 USA
0228 RU4HD 14009.2 RST569 working the W9 Russia
0230 VE7CP 14010.8 RST559 calling CQ BC, Canada
0231 UA6HX 14011.4 RST569 calling CQ Russia

 So, which is it, long or short path Goodness knows...but they are in the log! Getting late and time to shut down...quick check of 30 meters before having to walk the dogs. At 0233 GMT 10104.4, PZ5RA in Surinam RST 579. Maybe I should tune around just a few minutes more....

But, hark, hark, the dogs do bark...and there is the carpet to think about. Ok pups, lets go outside! Real life intrudes in the hobby yet again! :-)

May Starts With a Snooze

If April went out with a yawn, May started by hitting the “snooze” button on it's alarm clock. This was the week after the big flare and the time period that the big coronal mass ejection was supposed to miss the earth completely. May 1 GMT in front of the radio started with the following WWV sweep ( Times GMT, receiver R-75 on 80 meter sloper:

0000 WWV 25000 Inaudible
0001 WWV 20000 Carrier just audible
0002 WWV 15000 S-6
0002 WWVH 15000 S-6 even with WWV
0003 WWV 10000 S-9+30DB
0004 WWV 5000 S-9
0005 WWV 2500 S-4

The snoozing gets worse. For the first time in as long as I can remember, with the sun up, Ten Meters was completely and truly dead. I mean dead. No discernible noise other than receiver front end noise, not ONE beacon heard, nothing on CW or SSB. Whoa!. Same same Twelve Meters. Absolutely nothing.

Fifteen was not much better. No broadcast signals above the band, no CW signals, just a little noise and finally on SSB, one lone signal from PY2VI in Brazil on 21301. Seventeen meters was still not much good. The only station on the band was W1AW/1, one of the ARRL Centennial stations calling CQ on CW only RST449 with heavy QSB. He was getting no takers. This IS bad!

On down to 20. There I find plenty of signals, strong and steady, but all close in, single hop stuff. The strongest signal on the band is another operator of W1W/1 on 14026 working plenty of stations, but mostly in Florida and the Midwest. I hear one, lone VE3 in Ontario calling CQ and he is only RST549.

On down to 30 meters. At least WWV was strong on 10 mHz. Not an auspicious beginning. The first station heard is K5RIX on 10113.5. ( I am in the “5” call area) Not exactly DX. It is still full daylight and perhaps a little early for the band, but there have been many times I have heard Europeans this early. Nope! Not this time! There is another W1AW/1 station heard about S-7, but otherwise mostly Midwest stations strong and steady. Well, one W7 whose call indicates Northwest. One more sweep and the only DX found is one lone signal from Panama. Its the first time I have heard a beacon on this band: HP1AVS RST449 with QSB on 10122.1 at 0028.

OK...let's try something radical. I go all the way down the MW broadcast band. I am sure the absorption will still be high for skip, but let's just see if things are any better really down low. I started at the top of the Expanded Band. On days the band will be good, stuff often starts propping in early. At 1700, the station within groundwave range on daytime power, KKLF in Richardson, Texas is in at S-7, but there is already some short skip as KVNS from Brownsville—way too far for groundwave—is battling it out with him. The Chicago area WVON on 1690 is starting to show up about S-4, at least making it well over my local noise level. Nothing on 1680 yet, 1670 is covered with splash from the local 1660 KRZI with 10 kw with its usual S-9+50 DB signal from only a few miles away. By going to the narrow lower SSB position, I am able to pull out KZLS from Enid, Oklahoma on 1640.This station is marginally audible here during the daytime on the bigger wire antennas.

On down to 1630, the usual groundwave signal from KKGM in Fort Worth, Texas is there about S-6 and showing some signs of co channel hop. This station just does not have the signal one would expect from a 10 kw non directional station just 90 miles away. Its dial mate, WTAW on 1620 in College Station, Texas, also 90 miles away but in the opposite direction is always much stronger, today at S-9+20DB with no signs of co channel showing up yet at 0050.

Going down to 1610, The Caribbean Beacon from Anguilla ( which should be in or near darkness by now) is starting to show up, fading a bit but about S-5 on peaks with good audio. On 1600, another semi local from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, KRVA is in at S-9 with no interference. The local 1590 KLRK is in at S-9+20DB. It's transmitter is about 20 miles away East of town, technically licensed to Mexia, but now in reality a Waco station with 2500 watts. My location on the West side of Waco is right in the hot lobe of its four-tower directional array.

There is a little more skywave starting to show at 0108 GMT as the 1 kw KXZZ from Lake Charles, Louisiana ( once upon a time KLOU with a rock format...no more!) is in about S-8, using the lower sideband narrow selectivity position on the R-75 to get it out from under any KLRK splash. A slight nudge of the tuning dial down to 1570 and the band is starting to open more as XERF on 1570 is already in at S-9+20DB. It will get stronger as the night comes on. I am not sure how much power this station in Villa Acuna, Mexico is actually running these days. It was a true Border Blaster in the day with 250 kw right across the border from Del Rio, Texas. But in recent years it has been reported running as low as 50 kw, then a few years ago there was word that the 250 kw was running again ( and it sounded like it!!) with the World Radio TV Handbook and others listing it at 100kw. I can say it is truly stout into Central Texas from a bit before dark till at least an hour after sunrise every day.

For some reason, I slipped back to 1620 since it was obvious that to the east of us, darkness was falling, and sure as the world, Radio Rebelde from Cuba is starting to come up behind WTAW.

OK, how about we check a few lower frequency shortwave stations. Wow! They are obviously getting through! WWRB is S-9+30DB on 3185 at 0115 ( remember the time when there were no US stations down here, or even below 49 meters?). Just up a smidge from it at 3215, WWCR is S-9+40DB at 0116. Scrolling on up in the upper sideband mode to allow easy detection of carriers, I find Radio Mosoj Chaski on 3310 at about S-5 and rising. And next to it, Radio Sonder Grosse from South Africa is booming in at S-9+DB on 3320. The ionosphere isn't broken!
Just time to check a few more as the supper call is coming. CHU, the Canadian Time Signal station on 3330 is S-9+20DB ( I still remember when it used to identify as “ CHU, Dominion Observatory, Canada”.  Sorry to see them drop that part, it always sounded sort of special)

The only other signal heard in the 90 meter band that once was so full of signals comes from HRMD in Honduras ( I still like to log them by call letters when they are available...old habits....). A fast dial up as the second supper call comes finds New York Volmet WSY70 on 3485 at S-8. But now red beans and rice are calling from the supper table more loudly than stations from the radio! There ARE priorities!!!