01/03/2007 | AF9J I dabbled a little bit in SKN on 80 & 160 on the night of Dec. 31, with no luck. I went to bed at 10:30 PM local time. Unfortunately my Cluster Headaches repaid me a visit, forcing me to be up for the midnight year change. This combined with a cold/virus, and a general lack of sleep, left me burned out, and basically vegging out until the late afternoon of Jan. 1.

I did get some time in though. I did my SKN with a vintage vibe. I
fired up my 30 year old TS-820, and used my Bencher RJ-1 straight key
to make 3 QSOs. Unfortunatley condx. weren't that good. All 3 QSOs
ended up with either me, or the other station going QSB! Ugh!. I
also heard a station trying to call me on 80m, but he or she was down
in the noise (it was S9 Plus), and I just couldn't make out a call.
I wish I'd been able to spend more time in SKN. I wasn't able to
find many stations calling CQ SKN, so I worked my 3 QSOs by
CQing. Here are the stations I worked:

WB4FSF - on 20m, good fist, too bad Bonnie went QSB (I love doing YL
to YL QSOs)

KQ5U - on 40m, Terry in Spring, TX. I went QSB to him.

K0MDS - on 40m, Mike in Leavenworth, KS. This was the best QSO.
MIke used an IC-703, and a Windom. The noise & QSB were bad, but I
was able to copy most of what he sent. Not a bad performance from his
QRP setup!


It's too bad conx. were bad. QSB was quite pronounced. One minute the station I was working would be S6 or S7, and the next minute, he or she would be down in the noise. Still, I did have fun. I just wish I'd felt better, so I could ahve spent more time in SKN.

73,
Ellen - AF9J
SKCC # 1369 -- AF9J