I don't usually do posts on historical dates, as others do them much better than I do. Suffice to say, December 7th is an important date to remember, as is September 11th. There are similarities and differences, but both have immense historical relevance to the United States.
Never Forget. Never Give Up. Never Surrender.....
On a lighter note, I was able to make contact with NEPM today, even though conditions weren't very good. I was using the 14 MHz frequency instead of the 18 MHz frequency, and while my noise level is very low there, in the "S1~S2" range, the propagation was mediocre. Their signals were in the "S5" range, but there was slow fading up and down.
The RFI issue with the keyboard turned out to be a short USB cable plugged into it that I use to charge my phone. I plugged the cable into a USB port on the PC, and that problem went away. The RaspberryPI I use to decode ADSB transmissions has been given the full Snap On Ferrite Core Treatment, and seemed to tolerate transmitting 200 Watts on 14 MHz without getting wonky. It remains to be seen if it will tolerate 200 Watts on other bands, but for now it seems OK.
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I used to love working the military stations on Armed Forces Day. Most of them were local in California so propagation was not much of an issue.
ReplyDelete20 meters should be getting more useful as the solar cycle improves.
We've already had some excellent propagation this cycle. The propagation between here and SoCal is highly variable depending on time of day. Seems like the path is either too long, or too short from here to there. The noise floor in the harbor on the Iowa is also extremely high. I have S2~4 noise here on 20, and they typically have S7~9 during the day. I used to hear lots of big DC motor noise there from older equipment still in use in LA Harbor.
DeleteKinda like tinnitus for some of us older guys struggling to hear what's going on. I think mine is up to about S7 or so - LOL
DeleteHAH!
DeleteYay for fixing the problems!
ReplyDeleteThings appear to be OK.....
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