WC3Q :: Radio Amateur Station in Silver Spring, Maryland

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Blog Post

Sunday, July 3, 2016 - The bands have been silent for most of the afternoon. I completed one brief QSO with K2G in Georgia (Thirteen Colonies Special Event), monitored some stations on 6M SSB and then things became eerily silent.

It seems I search the internet for clear and hopeful insight on HF band conditions. It's pointless, yet I'm curious to learn ... so I continue searching and reading. Still, I yearn for the conditions from three years ago -- I was able to make QSO's from the back yard using a long wire and operating QRP.

Lately, I've enjoyed the real time data from K7RA. He writes:

There were eight days without sunspots
Sunspots during Field Day Weekend - none
Slight improvement is expected today

K7RA mentioned that conditions were good last weekend, during Field Day. Unfortunately, things were not very good when I was monitoring HF bands and the DX cluster. I hope things will improve, even just a little, in the coming weeks.

Here's the K7RA band stability data (as of the time of my writing):

Cook, P. P., III. (2016, June 24). LATEST K7RA HF Propagation Bulletin. Retrieved July 3, 2016, from http://www.bandconditions.com/NEWS.htm

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Blog Post

June 25, 2016 - It's Field Day weekend. I've always enjoyed FD, but haven't been affiliated with a club in recent years. One local group sent out a request for helpers to "tear down" ... huh.

So, I'm in the shack a few hours before the official "start" of FD and I hear static. Plenty of static. I'm almost wondering if my antenna is working. A few friends on a local list serve responded to an email. Everyone wrote there were few stations on 6-20M, and some signals increasing on 40M SSB. I've not been so fortunate here. My long wire and HEX are only copying faint signals and static.

Here's the latest report on propagation from K7RA:

"This weekend is ARRL Field Day. Good conditions are expected, but on Thursday prior to this weekend there were no sunspots visible. But the forecast is for a rising solar flux over the weekend with no geomagnetic upsets expected."

The current graphic summary (below) doesn't look good, nor does my current observation of 10-20M SSB. Maybe it's time for a new hobby.

Cook, P. P., III. (2016, June 24). LATEST K7RA HF Propagation Bulletin. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from http://www.bandconditions.com/NEWS.htm

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Blog Post

June 19, 2016 - With poor band conditions, I decided to review my WAS Award status on LoTW (8Band SSB). Here's what's still needed:

80M Missing: AK, AZ, CO, ID, NE, SD, UT, WA, WY
40M Missing: CO, ID, ND, OR, SD, UT, WY
20M Completed
17M Missing: FL, GA, HI, MI
15M Completed
12M Missing: AL, HI, IL, IA, ME, MA, NE, NH, SD
10M Completed
6M Missing: AK, AZ, CA, CT, HI, ID, ME, MA, MT, NE, NH, NC, ND, OR, RI, SD, TN, UT, VT, WA, WY

SAINT BARTHELEMY 516 FJ

FJ/W9AEB 17M SSB

June 19, 2016 - Yuck! HF bands are dead. I updated LoTW and confirmed more eQSL's, which was nice. I've not been in the shack for months because of a busy schedule and poor band conditions. Perhaps 6M SSB will open later this afternoon.

Thus far, I've only copied W5RF (Texas, weak readable) making a QSO with T77LA (San Marino) at 12:24PM EDT. Otherwise, the bands are flat here at my station.

Tad Cook, K7RA offered the following statement yesterday:

"That was a little scary seeing the daily sunspot number at zero for four days, June 3 to 6, but conditions seem to have recovered nicely."

The following graphic is from K7RA's webpage (it's a nice graphic resource). Looks like 160M and 15M may be the only possibilities right now. I'm off to listen on 15M SSB.

Cook, P. P., III. (2016, June 18). LATEST K7RA HF Propagation Bulletin. Retrieved June 19, 2016, from http://www.bandconditions.com/NEWS.htm

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Blog Post

April 24, 2016 - Well, it's been several months since I've had time to log time in my shack. It's a shame -- my first day back on HF bands and the HF bands are serving up a lousy afternoon for DX. A quick look at "the numbers" better explains my disappointment:

There's no way around it. HF propagation stinks. I'll take some time to read up on recent trends and forecasts, to see what the the next few weeks will offer. I have a hunch this is destined to be a quiet summer.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

PALESTINE 510 E4

PALESTINE E41MT 40M SSB

March 12, 2016 - Two years after originally trying to complete an SSB QSO, I contacted E41WT -- barely. Propagation "dropped" on 40M SSB; however, we were able to get each other "in the log" and exchanged QSL's via LoTW. This is my first confirmed QSO with Palestine!