[Wswss] 23CM35 report on Friday net 11/3/12 0300Z

[Courtney Duncan]

I replaced a fixed pointed WA5VJB 8 element yagi with an M^2 23CM35 on a rotator this week.  Getting 7-8 watts into the antenna.  Preamp is in the shack so the system noise figure is worse than 5 dB.

On the Friday 1296.100 net at 0250Z, saw/heard Ralph, K6TSK, at 56, where 54 is normal.  He said I was loudest he'd ever heard me, and heard a carrier on my signal....  (That would be a DSP-10 issue.)

Armed with a list of likely call signs and beam headings from qrz.com, I heard some other stations.

0254 heard Ralph check in W6DQ.  Beamed 143.  Absolutely nothing heard from W6DQ.  :-(
0256 heard Ralph probably saying "KI6FF, David" could barely hear the other station.  Didn't talk enough to peak up on him.  Would have been nearly the same beam heading. Might have been workable on CW.
0304 heard Ralph say "Larry"  Probably K6HLH.  Beamed 38, nothing heard.  (Nothing expected, mountains, would have to look for knife edge or a reflection.)
0312 heard Ralph say "W" at the end of a call.  W6QIW?  Heard peaks on the checking in station while rotating to 280.  Could have worked him on USB if I'd gotten there in time.
0314 heard Ralph calling N6ZE for a couple of minutes.  Beamed 269, heard nothing.
0327 heard Ralph telling somebody that DQ (EQ?) was going to 120 and QIW was going to try to work him on CW.  Heard Ralph say "Chuck."   Maybe EQ then.
0335 heard Ralph working "PI" N6PI?  Nothing heard from other end.
0334 heard airplane multipath on Ralph's CW.

0337 QSY to 1296.120.
Made blind CW calls to
  W6QIW @ 280,
  W6DQ @ 143,
  N6EQ @ 077 (not expected through mountains),
  N8DEZ @ 304, and
  W6DQ @ 149.
All NIL.

N8DEZ and KF6RNT didn't check in or I would have heard them.

When K6TSK NCS is beamed off me, copy is not Q5 anymore, and I would say that conditions were "moderate flutter."  There were Q5 copyable syllables followed by mush.  I'm used to this from 160 m. and SS type operation.  I'm hearing this same thing back on the K6QPV/B 208 km SE here right now.

The new beam works, looks it might double my number of stations workable might have doubled, and a new tag end of coax is on order (to arrive Monday) that should improve the overall cable run from rig to antenna from 4.5 dB to 2.5 dB loss.  Then we'll try again, but I may need a schedule or some VHF coordination and fooling around to actually work anybody but Ralph!

Courtney, n5bf/6 DM04vf


"It's science. They don't know anything; they just make a lot of educated guesses."  -- Viannah Duncan

Courtney Duncan, n5bf/6
cbduncan at earthlink dot net
1296.100, 1.810.
n5bf at amsat dot org