At Last

Finally, a long drought ends with a (short) QSO with Dennis, K6DF, on 20 meters this afternoon. I was about to leave work when I heard Dennis' CQ, and decided to give him a quick call. Had a short chat, cut off by increasing QRM.

20 meters has been pretty poor the last couple of days, I hope it will improve soon.

Keeping On

Had a nice QSO at lunch with Dave, WA9ZJI who was running 4 watts from his MFJ-9020 at a campsite in North Dakota. He has a pretty solid S6-7 signal (when the QSB wasn't getting him), but there was a thunder storm in progress here at the time which provided some challenge.

He gave me a 559 report for my 2 watts, which is a pretty good exchange over a 1000 - mile path.

That's 2 contacts in 3 days, a big improvement over no contacts in 3 months.

Oh, and I heard (the inevitable SWL report) OM5CL in Slovakia yesterday on 14.044 calling CQ. My "Worked No Slovakia" certificate is still valid.

Dididit, no I meant didit, aw forget it

I got my Whiterook MK-44 mini-paddles today. Now, I have been sending with a straight key (an E.F. Johnson J-37 clone I bought from Allied Electronics in 1963) for, well, 40 years. Way back, I tried a Vibroplex Lightning Bug, but never could get the hang of it. If you have ever seen a Lightning Bug, you can probably figure out why that would be.

The DSW20 has a built-in iambic keyer (actually it's in the firmware of the PIC microprocessor), and the MP-44 works pretty smooth with it. I found some 50-ohm attenuators that provide 30 dB attenuation so I can practice without actually radiating (I take the antenna off, 2 milliwatts reflected power probably isn't going to hurt anything). If I can get over trying to switch the dit and dah paddles between letters, I think I can get used to a keyer.

Of course, the MFJ twins don't have built-in keyers, and I don't especially want to buy the $50 daughter board for each of them, so I will probably get the Whiterook mini-keyer for those.

SWL report of the week: heard Alf, G3UAA on 14058 while driving home tonight. He was about a 539 to 559 on the Hamstick. 20 was dead at noon but gets these grayline openings in the late afternoon.

First Contact Using the Keyer

Shortly after the last entry, I went outside to listen on 20. Hearing no-one on 14.060, I sent a few "TEST" rounds and signed my call. WA7KRN called, operating portable out of a campsite in Wyoming. He was running 1 watt on his end. After some nice conversation, QSB ended the exchange. I didn't embarrass myself too much with the paddles so maybe this will be a go after all.

My New Key

For those who are interested, here is my new key:

Overflowing Cup Dept.

I have had a busy couple of days. Last night I fought off mosquitos and worked K8XF for a short QSO, then tried to get UA0AZ in Russia who was coming in pretty good here. He was calling CQ but after I answered, he went silent, only to turn up on RTTY a few minutes later (according to the DX cluster spotters, at least). One last attempt yielded N9NE who was contesting on 14.060, so we exchanged the necessary contest log info. A 1 - minute contact is still a contact, right?

Tried some calls tonight with no luck then went back out around 9:30 to listen. 20 sounded dead, but I tuned down to Extra land and answered KH6AQ's CQ for a quick QSO. That's my first Hawaii contact (ever!). I am hopeful he will QSL, so I can put up some more scans.