2007 IARU HF World Championships
07/15/2007 |
K5BZH
Operating hours limited due to weekend guests. Discovered my primary antenna, a trap vertical, exhibited infinite VSWR and logging software for IARU not being loaded didnt help either.
Used a 20 meter dipole I had tacked to the eaves of the house (about 8 ft in height) when we first moved here. Rather happy that I had not pruned it to 17 meters yet.
Propagation wasnt great, but 20 wasnt as bad as I have heard it a few times recently. My total time was on 20 CW. In the earlier part of the day I noted we had a lot of short skip. Five or 6 stations I worked were under 500 miles away. At 1535Z I worked W5KFT in Lubbock, that is about 120 miles south of me. Managed to work several of the special stations like 6F75A, W1AW/4, NU1AW, PJ2HQ, VE7RAC, etc.
I thought that 20 was going to shut down around dusk, things sort of faded away, then activity seemed to increase. At 0439Z (11:39 p.m. local) I worked KH6ZM, had heard him give a 59961 report as I tuned to his frequency several minutes earlier, that really woke me up!!! He had a beautiful signal into the Texas Pahhandle. It took a while for me to get through the pileup. Later I worked several more stations in that part of the world, the total was 3 in Australia, 2 in New Zealand, and 2 in Hawaii. Add JF1SQC in Japan. Also heard JF2SKV on 14.0538 around 0550Z, but conditions didnt improve enough to allow a QSO.
Made over 100 contacts in about 5 hours of off and on operating. Noted that over 1/3 of the contacts were in the extra class part of the band. Sort of an entertaining event, considering everything. Truthfully it was much better than I expected. Rig here was a Heath SB-1400. If band conditions get any better I think I just may have to build a regen receiver and a 5763 crystal controlled transmitter and chase states. That could be a lot of fun too.
73, Jim -- K5BZH
Used a 20 meter dipole I had tacked to the eaves of the house (about 8 ft in height) when we first moved here. Rather happy that I had not pruned it to 17 meters yet.
Propagation wasnt great, but 20 wasnt as bad as I have heard it a few times recently. My total time was on 20 CW. In the earlier part of the day I noted we had a lot of short skip. Five or 6 stations I worked were under 500 miles away. At 1535Z I worked W5KFT in Lubbock, that is about 120 miles south of me. Managed to work several of the special stations like 6F75A, W1AW/4, NU1AW, PJ2HQ, VE7RAC, etc.
I thought that 20 was going to shut down around dusk, things sort of faded away, then activity seemed to increase. At 0439Z (11:39 p.m. local) I worked KH6ZM, had heard him give a 59961 report as I tuned to his frequency several minutes earlier, that really woke me up!!! He had a beautiful signal into the Texas Pahhandle. It took a while for me to get through the pileup. Later I worked several more stations in that part of the world, the total was 3 in Australia, 2 in New Zealand, and 2 in Hawaii. Add JF1SQC in Japan. Also heard JF2SKV on 14.0538 around 0550Z, but conditions didnt improve enough to allow a QSO.
Made over 100 contacts in about 5 hours of off and on operating. Noted that over 1/3 of the contacts were in the extra class part of the band. Sort of an entertaining event, considering everything. Truthfully it was much better than I expected. Rig here was a Heath SB-1400. If band conditions get any better I think I just may have to build a regen receiver and a 5763 crystal controlled transmitter and chase states. That could be a lot of fun too.
73, Jim -- K5BZH
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