Message-ID: <36E43A22.69278378@cableol.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1999 20:59:14 +0000
From: "Steve Rawlings" <steve.rawlings@cableol.co.uk>
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To: "LF Group" <rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org>
Subject: LF: Weekend Report 6-7/3/99, GW4ALG
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Hi All,

I got the balloons up again on Saturday morning and thus extended my 12
m vertical into a 20 m vertical for 136 kHz.

At 06:42 UTC, I had a fine QSO with Harry PA0LQ (RST 559 both ways).  At
07:40, club station DF0WD (768 km) answered my CQ call and we made the
first DL/GW 2-way QSO on 136 kHz  (I sent RST 449, received 349).
DF0WD, operated by Wolf  DL4YHF, was running 20 W to a 200 m wire, 17 m
high ("tied to the light-masts of a football field").

In a subsequent Email, Wolf described his RX antenna as a small bundle
of ferrite rods and said "I have to turn that antenna by hand to get
minimum QRM (not maximum field-strength of the received signal!)."

The weather got windy later on, so I took the experimental vertical
down.  On the loop I had a QSO with Ron G6RO (253 km, 549 both ways) and
in the afternoon I worked Bob G8RW (192 km) for a new one (I sent RST
459, received 539).

On Sunday, I got the balloons up again to work Harry PA0LQ at 07:08 UTC
(549 both ways).

With a large number of jobs to do around the house at weekends, I expect
to be most active on Saturdays and Sundays between 06:30 and 08:00
(local time).  This is also when the weather conditions are most likely
to be favourable for using my balloon-supported vertical.

Regards to all,
Steve GW4ALG