Monday, August 18, 2014

40 AND 30 METERS ARE CURRENTLY MY FAVOURITE BANDS

It's amazing how 30 metres can sometimes be dead then all of a sudden a lone piece of DX calls me.  That happened recently when I put out a call on a dead band and a 9M6 in Malaysia  came straight back. I've been having fun running 5 watts and getting reports back from South America too.  So, 30M gets my thumbs up as a good band for DX.

For most of my amateur radio years, I ignored forty metres as a band where nothing interesting happens.  However, over the past few years, I have become more friendly toward the band.  I also operate CW on 40M but occasionally I plug the microphone in.  This weekend, for example, 16-17th August 2014, I abandoned the Morse key and worked a few of the lighthouses on the air, which made a change.  However, the best fun came when the band opened up in the early hours of 18th, when stateside starts coming in at 59+20Db.  So I had a few QSO's running about 200 watts into my piece of wire.  Then, I was lucky enough to be first on the scene when LU5FC came on (also 59+) so I grabbed him as well.  I felt rather pleased with that.

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