The twenty meter band really opened up this afternoon and I've come to the realization, that when the band is open, I can easily work "across the pond" with four watts of power.
In the beginning, I worked CU2AK in Portugal with my normal five watts of power. I could tell the band was up, so I got brave, and lowered my power another watt to take advantage of the good conditions. The rest of the evening, I worked all my stations with 4 watts of power.
It wasn't long until I recognized a familiar French call F5NBX and he had no trouble hearing me. I was overjoyed when we exchanged the basics. Fred is at 4,103 miles distance from me. This guy has an incredible signal here on the east coast!
It wasn't long until I heard VE1BA/ QRP in Kingston, Nova Scotia calling, and we said a quick hello. (John and I have worked many many times with his 3 watts).
It wasn't long (after that) until I worked EA4TX in Spain. Paul is 4,030 miles with my 4 watts. (need I say more)
But my best contact was still yet to come....
On the 146.060 QRP frequency, I heard F6DCD/ qrp calling! It took a few minutes, to make sure our calls were correct, but we were finally able confirm his 4,262 mile QRP signal from France. Denis was using a 2 element Yagi.
The 2 x QRP was the most exciting for me.
I tried VERY hard to work RT5A in Moscow. Maybe next time? ...
5 comments:
Great John. I wish I had more time to be on the air today, but the Buddistick problem ate up hours! I home my Sierra Slim antenna continues to perform 73 Dick
Hello Dick,
Those are great contacts that you made today with the Sierra Slim antenna and I think we both do well with our limited stations. No matter what...we have a lot of fun with radio!
Hello John,
Congrats on your ant.
An indoor 18" antenna doing DX with 1000 MPW. WOW.
Your Isotron is really doing great.
Who would think that this is possible.
Good luck in MPW DX. hi
73, Bert
Hello Bert,
Me especially! LOL
Actually...., this weekend makes the 6th 1000 mpw contact for me. My best so far (at one watt) was WP4L in Puerto Rico.
WP4L comes in #1 with 1,679.46 miles per watt!
(I've worked him "twice" but the one watt contact was the clincher....)
I now have 2 contacts in Bulgaria, 2 in France, 1 in Spain and (my best) 1 in Puerto Rico.
I'm quite amused with my contacts.
My DX contacts are now just over # 75...I'll consider it an accomplishment when I hit # 100.
Thanks again for your suggestion to always lower my power to 4 watts or less when the band is good!
It's been a real "hoot" so far!
Hello John,
You already worked a nice list of 1000 MPW DX QSO's with Europe. WP4L with 1680 MPW is also great. It's so fine to make this sort of memorable QSO's.
Don't worry about dupes. They show the other station that you are not working with a fixed power, but that you are using the opportunity, that the daily fluctuations of the ionosphere provide.
The S-meter is a very good indicator for extreme propagation.
After all these QSO's with low power, I sometimes I can not decide with which power I shall answer. If the power is just to low he will not hear me.
Further it all depends on operating practice and luck.
Good luck in low power DX.
Go for the 100, and don't stop. hi
73, Bert
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