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Decent DX Day
16 March 2013 | by 
I was piddling around on the bands today. Since there were a lot of contests going on, and I did not feel like participating, I exiled myself to the WARC bands – 30, 17 and 12 Meters.
There was enough DX to be had and I worked just about all of it QRP.
On 12 Meters, I worked Andy SP9KR. There was a lot of QSB there, and I’m not 1000% that he got my call right. So at the very end, when I sent my call sign for the very last time, I bumped up my power to 55 Watts (for insurance) but I’m not sure that even then that I was heard correctly.
On 17 Meters I worked Serge R7AY in Russia. After our QSO and I got Serge’s info in my log, I heard him continue to call CQ. So I spotted him on the TelNet Cluster. Almost immediately, as he was working other stations I heard him send “W2LJ TNX SPOT”. I guess he had his computer on! I thought that was so cool. You’re very welcome Serge, I hope it brought you lots of DX!
I also worked OT4A in Belgium and GW100C in Wales. Of course the GW100C call stuck out like a sore thumb. After working him, I looked up the call on QRZ and it turns out that GW100C is one of several UK HQ team members of the RSGB. These calls, GW100C, GM100C, GD100C, G100C, GJ100C are meant to be used by the HQ members so that they get practice in learning how to handle pileups for when they are taking their turns as G100RSGB, GW100RSGB, GM100RSGB, etc – the RSGB Centennial Stations.
On 30 Meters, I was able to work PJ7/N0TG and PJ7AA, both on Sint Maarten. J34G in Grenada who has excellent ears – and as it turns out, an FOC member, so no surprise there.
The last station that I worked for the day was Ivin 5N7M in Nigeria. I ended up having to bump up the power to 85 Watts to work Ivin. I was getting nowhere with 5 Watts and it actually took a fair amount of doing to get noticed at 85 Watts. The pile up wasn’t fierce, so I have no idea what the problem was, although for this QSO, the EDZ ended up being the antenna that worked. I have worked Nigeria before with QRP power, but not on 30 Meters. Nigeria was new for me on that band.
Geez, it almost sounds like I’m starting to pay attention to 5BDXCC matters!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
2 Responses to “Decent DX Day”
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warc bands can be fun
Larry,
Good work on the bands. No reason to fear the ocassional need to QRO. I have a kilowatt available but chose to run QRP most of the time. It is all in the antenna. If you can rotate it and it has gain, you may never need QRO. I have worked VK long path with my MTR rig and a Hexbeam during a contest and got him first call. I have also called my heart out with 1500 watts and a roof mounted vertical during a major DX pedition several years ago and got nothing but a higher electric bill. Keep up the good work and Happy upcoming Easter.
73, Dave K1THP