QRS CW Net: 03-30-2013 07:00 PM - 07:30 PM

[Todd KF7NLX]

We had some fairly substantial wind, rain and lightning up here in the far north valley, so I decided to stay put rather than drive down to Glendale and not be able to operate.

Glad to see you back Kurt. I hope the RF withdrawls were tolerable.

Hope to be in there next week guys.

GE
Todd

[KF7ORO]

We had some t-storms in the area but nothing closer than about 25 miles from me. Since I couldn't hear you guys, I played in the NAQP RTTY contest and worked about 20 states on 40 meters but never heard an AZ station on any band.

I'm planning to go fishing next weekend at my mother-in-law's cabin in Duck Creek UT. It's up on the side of a mountain at 7500' so I can't wait to see how that works. I'll take the FT-817 with me and throw up a 40 meter dipole. Hopefully I'll be able to get in.

[KE7KUS]

I think the condx Saturday night were probably some of the worst I've seen all summer. At least here the QRN on the band was a solid S7, while received signals during a given net any week are in the S5-S7 range. I was surprised to hear Montana on frequency, as that's well outside of NVIS range, but he faded out pretty quickly after I copied his callsign...never did get a name or QTH.

Good feedback, Brian, as I had the loop axis pointed right at you, so either the storms here took me out, or there was some solar activity that took the band out. I don't keep up with solar conditions very well, but as the SSN goes up over the next 18 months, it might be worth checking that a little more closely to get a better idea of conditions. HF can be so fickle, sometimes!

[KF7ORO]

I'm taking off in the morning for Duck Creek UT. I've got a 40 meter dipole set up and the FT-817 packed but the weather forecast says t-storms there over the weekend. If I'm not there for the net it's because the lightning hit before I could check in.

[KE7KUS]

Have fun, Brian. Hope the weather cooperates...I'd love to put that 817 to work and see what we get out of it. I'll be here on the loop with the Flex and pushing 35W as usual. I hope the QRN stays low, although it's been bad the past couple nights. I can't remember...do you have filters in your 817?

[KF7ORO]

I just put a 500 Hz filter in it. Haven't really tried it out yet. Hope it works ok. I put the TCXO in there while I had it open. Hopefully that'll help on digi-modes. Also got a Vibroplex Code Warrior Jr Key. I keep bending up my Bencher when I take it out.

[KE7KUS]

OK! Great net tonight guys. Pretty much a "usual suspects" kind of night on the net...thanks to Todd, KF7NLX and Marty, WB7X for checking in. Sigs were FB on this end tonight...no issues whatsoever...Marty was a solid 579 peaking at 10 over, and Todd was the same towards the end of the net. Brian, we're assuming the weather took you off the air...we listened and called for you several times with no luck. The band was a little noisy tonight, but signals were strong enough that it wasn't a big deal...copy was easy all around from my vantage point.

I did a little rearranging of the shack here and was using the FT-897 tonight at 50W into the loop. I recorded the net using fldigi, but am having the same problem I did for the first net...I get only Rx audio...not Tx. I'll upload it anyway, in case anyone wants to hear what their signal sounded like at my place, but unfortunately I didn't get both sides of the net. I'll work on that for next week.

As per the announcement tonight, I'm looking for a guest net control on August 11th, as I will be out of town and will not have an HF radio with me. If you're interested in hosting, post up here, or send me a PM.

Thanks again, Todd & Marty...I enjoyed as usual!

73,
Kurt
KE7KUS

[WB7X]

Got some wx here around start time. Blew pretty good and a saw lightning once.

Todd was up to S9+5 on your "after net'. Kurt about 58. Sigs were bouncing a bit.

I just picked up another straight key, now I have two that aren't hooked up.

Tnx OM Kurt.

[KF7ORO]

Sorry I missed it. I was all set up and ready to go. Then about 2 minutes before 7:00, the rain started. It wouldn't have been that bad but the wind was blowing it right into the covered porch I was set up on. Had to get all the gear inside and didn't have enough coax to reach in there.

Oh well, it was a nice trip. Highs in the 70's so that was a nice break. My daughter and I caught a trout too so at least it wasn't a total bust.

[KE7KUS]

Sorry guys...won't be able to make the net tonight...work is calling. Hope you all can still get something cooking. I'll also be gone next week if anyone is interested in hosting. See you in 2 weeks.
73,
Kurt

[WB7X]

Called for about 10 minutes but nothing.

[KF7ORO]

I must have just missed you Marty. I tuned in right at 7:00 and didn't hear anything for a couple minutes so I checked the web page and saw Kurt's post. Figured it just wasn't going to happen.

I'm probably going to be in San Diego next Saturday so I'm not sure I'll be able to check in at all. The plan could change though and if I'll be around, I'm willing to try doing net control.

[KF7ORO]

Is the net on tonight?

[KE7KUS]

We're a go for tonight...I just drove in from TX about an hour ago and got the antenna switched over to 40m. Standard time / freq...see you in a couple hours!

[KF7ORO]

Looks like the band's just not in very good shape. At the beginning of the net, I could copy about 30-40% of what you were sending Kurt. You were very weak. But after about a minute you just faded and by the time I think you would have been calling for checkins, I was only able to hear a couple letters every minute.

Not sure if you could hear a couple guys tuning up and calling CQ right on top of you. That didn't help much but by that point I wasn't hearing enough to even try to guess when you were calling for a check in.

It's about 7:25 now and I haven't heard anything in a while. Oh well, hopefully we can try it again next week.

[KE7KUS]

Oooh...yeah...REALLY bad band tonight. After calling for checkins I maybe heard one attempt at a checkin...either a T or an N...possibly Todd, KF7NLX? I never heard you, Brian. No other checkins heard...there was a guy calling CQ down about 500Hz...he was booming here for me...also another station faint up about 800Hz...that's about it. After I closed the net, I heard Todd calling...I tried to return for about 10 mins, but nothing heard. Just prior to the net, Chris, K6OZY, reported he heard me but I was down in the noise...not even an S1 on the meter.

Tonight I was running 75W into the loop using the FT-897. The net audio is in the Downloads section, if you want to hear what I heard at my QTH. Thanks everybody for trying...hopefully we'll get better luck next week. See you all then!

73,
Kurt
KE7KUS

[WB7X]

Well I messed up. Don't know why I was thinking 8PM.

Even dug out and wired up a straight key.

[KF7ORO]

I had the filter pretty tight so I don't think I was hearing those guys. There was one about 100Hz below you that almost blew the headphones off my head though. I was messing with stuff trying to hear you better so I had the AGC off and volume way up when he started.

[Todd KF7NLX]

"I'll take four letter words for feces, for a thousand Alex"... Yeah, bad is an under statement. I had the script in front of me and I could get just a few words of the net intro intermittently due to Kurt's sigs fading in and out. If I didn't have the script, it would have been a no-go on the copy. I transmitted "N" when QNI was called and thought it was acknowledged then proceeded with the normal check in, but no copy on Kurt's end evidently. Nothing heard from Marty (for now obvious reasons) and I didn't hear Brian. I heard Kurt after the net, but was only getting a small percentage of his transmitions. At least he heard my call sign and tried to get back.

I was running 30W initially and then bumped up to 50W on my 857D at my folks house on same dipole. On a better note, I have all the copper and fittings to make a SMLA like Kurt's, just need some RG213 and I'm ready to construct. I'll post more on that in Kurt's build thread as I progress on it.

If the world was perfect there would be no four letter words for feces...

Welcome back Kurt and thanks for the effort.

73 Todd

[KE7KUS]

Sorry guys...late notice, but I'm going to be in Texas at a funeral this Saturday and am traveling light (i.e. no radio). If someone else wants to volunteer to herd the cats, great, or just have a nice roundtable without me. Hopefully September will be a better month...seems like August has been an absolute bust. I'm also looking intently at acquiring a setup like Brian's...FT-817 w/ some type of portable antenna...possibly a small 50W amp to get on top of the QRM...something I can toss in a backpack and take with me when I'm away from the house here. Stay tuned...