Catching Up

I’ve been neglecting this space. After that brief run of quality SSB contacts a couple weeks back, the local noise has returned with a vengeance. I am still able to make a few contacts each day, mostly with POTA stations, but the DX signals just don’t crack the noise dome that seems to be sitting over our neighborhood. Just two of my last 40 SSB QSOs have been with non-North American stations.

My biggest disappointment of recent weeks was not getting either J38DX or J38LD in the logbook on phone. I managed five FT8 contacts with J38DX over their time on the island. Three nights I casually tried to crack J38LD’s pileup on 20. He was never super strong, but always readable. And he did a nice job of working through the mass of callers. I heard other 9-land people getting through, so figured it was just a matter of time.

But after that three-night run of hearing him clearly, the bands noised-up or propagation flat disappeared and I never heard him again.

I hate missed opportunities like this, especially as the sun spots disappear. Hopefully I’ll have better luck with the next visitors to Grenada.

Last Friday K9MLP and I went to Ft. Harrison for our second POTA outing. Strange conditions. The noise level seemed low, and the POTA page looked busy. However, we weren’t able to hear many of the active stations. We also struggled to find an open frequency, as there was plenty of morning net and rag chewing going on. Each time we thought we found a clear spot we’d hear spillover from 2-3 kilohertz away and have to start searching again. In the end, we decided to just hunt. Even then it took nearly an hour to get 10 contacts in the book. At least it was a very nice morning, spent with a good friend, and we had a good lunch after, so even if the log wasn’t overflowing it was a fine way to spend part of my day.

Other topics I need to get to in this space:

• A revamp of my portable setup that will, hopefully, have me getting out more often.
• The arrival of a practice keyer which will lead to me giving the whole learning CW thing a shot.
• Some thoughts on the dizzying number of ways to verify a contact.

Still hoping for better conditions to return as the equinox approaches…