On Mon, 1 Dec 2008 08:54:28 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:
"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:01:13 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:
On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:50:42 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
Messing around the lower end of 75 tonight listening to the high speed
traffic nets (yeah - they still exist much to my delight). Once they
closed down, I moved down the band to 3.520.50 and heard a faint call.
I switched from my 80 dipole to the long wire and got a couple of
extra s units - HS0B - thought I was hearing things. I was already
tuned up - gave a shout and damn if he didn't hear me. :)
Must have been long path - there was a lot of fade, but we got the QSO
exchange and quick name exchange before the pile up started. I tried
listening through the QRM - he was still there, but really faint.
Must have hot spotted.
Interesting anyway - the low bands seem really mediocre. I handed out
a few Qs today for the CW WW CW - maybe 200 in all - Europe turned on
and off like a freakin light switch. Same with the JAs which are
normally all over 20 meters around sundown.
Damn global warming.
I blame Canada.
Wow - now I'm hearing all kinds of UAs - band shifted quick.
Hmmm - me thinks it's time to inspect the Beverages. :)
Cool. Unfortunately my 23 ft whip on the boat doesn't really cut it
on the low bands and I'm not set up for CW.
Have you ever looked into one of the Outbacker antennas? I've been
thinking about going CW mobile again. I was up in Salem, NH last week
doing a chore for Mrs. Wave and stopped at HRO. Got a look at the
Yaesu FT-857D - available with a full set of Collins mechanical
filters. Hmmmm.... :)
Looking through the catalogs I see that Hustler still makes their mast
and top hat resonators for mobile use. I have a full set of those out
in the work shop all the way from 160 to 6 meters.
Anyway, I was kind of interested in the auto tuner antennas that
interface with the tuners on the radios - extending and retracting the
radiator as needed and I stumbled across the Outbackers.
I check into the Maritime Mobile Service Net on 14.300 once in a
while just to check the rig out. We listen to it a lot when we're out
cruising. Mrs B finds it reassuring that there's a whole army of
people out there ready and willing to help out. They provide quite
a service.
I have a mixed history with them - mostly positive, but you only need
a couple of really bad operators or, well no other word for it, stupid
operators and it kind of ruins things.
In particular that whole KV4FZ thing which did a lot of damage to the
net which lasts to this day even if they don't want to admit it.
I used to work with the German Cruisers net back in the day. That was
quite a service - I can't remember the guys call, but his name was
Horst and he worked the gray line from Pacific to the East coast over
night with pirate reports, weather reports, lost cruisers, etc. He
did a hell of a job.
Didn't realize Herb got it so much trouble while I've been inactive.
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2000/05/03/2/?nc=1
The funny thing about it is that he was an outstanding radio op. He
was the one who came up with the phone number system during the '85
Mexican Earthquake which was used so effectively by XE1L to provide
information about the health and welfare of familys of folks here in
the US. I handled a lot of traffic during that one and he was as
active as anybody else with a loud station.
And then there was the Hugo diaster in which he really shined working
as a forward air traffic controller routing relief missions by the
Navy and Marine Corps sea/airlift in addition to all the International
aid traffic going into and out of the VI area.
Unfortunately, he had a dark side and it wasn't a pleasant one. I
can't speak to the civiian problems he was accused of, but I am very
aware of the problems he caused on the ham bands and it wasn't
pleasant.