for two reasons. First: it was the first real- world test of my just-
completed Elecraft T1 antenna tuner. It worked great! I can say that
because, second, I worked JA1DLE (Japan)! By Great Circle that's 4786
miles. Not bad for 3 watts into a humble dipole wrapped around my
house roofline.
I began the contest at 0000Z at my operating position in the garage.
It's been quite cold this past week, -10 on Wednesday, and in the 20s
on Saturday. After several hours it became a bit too cold to operate
in the garage, so I shifted upstairs into the house.
There, with assistance from my XYL, I quickly rigged up an indoor
dipole and set up my station in the spare bedroom.
Indoor antennas rarely outperform those outside and this was no
exception (either that or 40m condx had deteriorated in the late
evening to where I was hearing almost no signals).
I went QRT till Saturday AM when I returned to my original operating
position using my bent dipole at about 20 feet.
At 0200Z Saturday I fired up my trusty NorCal 40a and immediately
heard plenty of activity on 40m.
Plenty of action from the Pacific including China, Australia, New
Zealand, Hawaii and Japan.
I hailed each station calling but received no responses. Maybe I
hadn't done as good a job as I thought building the T1.
Then, at around 0330Z I heard JA1DLE calling CQ Test. I
responded...nothing. He responded to many callers. I called
again...nothing. I called again. JA1DLE sent .._ _..
I quickly sent my call. Nothing.
I called again. Again JA1DLE sent an uncertain .._ _..
I responded again with my call, but a bit slower.
JA1DLE responded: N7RCS 5NN 25
Contact! 5NN 3
Wow, the magic of Amateur radio. A faint, 3w signal shoots skyward
from my Idaho roof edge, along the way it gets stripped down to a
microwatt or two, then skips twice off the ionosphere and briefly
connects two radio stations 4786 miles apart.
All accomplished with gear made by my own hands: transceiver, antenna
tuner, antenna, feedline, and key.
Powerful.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment