Like everyone, I was most impressed by the 7S6SAJ signal, which read S9+10dB
on my meter - almost as strong as Dave G3YXM! I was out most of Saturday
afternoon so it took some time to work Christer through the pile-up;
eventually having him reply to my own CQ way down the band! He complained
about severe RX QRM at that time and seemed to be having difficulty copying
most of the many stations who were calling. It will be interesting to see
Christer's comments on this - perhaps there was a lot of LF noise being
generated on the site, or maybe the receiver couldn't handle the high
signal levels from the big antenna, if that was what they were using on
receive. We shall see. Despite what some would have us believe, there is
an element of luck on LF in getting a site which works consistently well on
both receive and transmit. There also seems to be an advantage in having a
deaf (or 'deafened') receiver when using a very big antenna.......
It was interesting to see Alan's relay of the cluster spot for my QSO with
DK7KO. This was another new one for me, but less interesting than the
contact I had with HB9DCE at 10.43UT on Sunday morning. He called on my
frequency as I finished a contact with DK5PT, and seemed rather surprised
when I responded, although his signal peaked RST-559. LX1PD worked him
immediately afterwards, but I didn't hear anyone else call him. Is this
another case of the mythical assymetrical ear syndrome, or (much more
likely)
the geographical variations in propagation that many of us are observing
on the band? I for one notice this particularly on Swiss, Austrian, South
German and North Italian signals, where sometimes I hear them better than
other G stations and sometimes worse - an effect with mountains and sky-wave
perhaps?
(Toni - do you have HB9DCE's address?)
Regards John G4GVC near Leicester, IO92JP
** TX: Synth + 400W RF from modified 'G3YXM' Mosfet PA **
** RX: TS-850S with 3 x CW filters and 0.5ppm TCXO **
** Ant: Inv-L 60m long, 6m high at feed end, 12m high at far end **
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