Heavy Metal Rally - FANTASTIC conditions !! - Best ever.

[steve_qix]

You know you have good band conditions when your LOCAL friend 50 miles away is pinning your S meter, and at the same time you can hear the West coast (CA) AND Europe (and they're hearing you with a strong signal).

It doesn't get any better than that - and that's what we had last night (or should I say early this morning at 1:00AM).

Filled pages in my notebook with stations worked, and met about a dozen new AMers.

Finally had a failure at my end, but the crap out was not in any equipment, but in my VOICE.  I couldn't talk any more - got real hoarse after hours of operation - had to call it quits.

There was minimal slop-bucket interference, at least on the frequencies I was using.  There was just too much activity up and around 3885 - all that 5kHz spacing was giving me a headache, so I found a clear spot at 3849 and called "CQ the Heavy Metal Rally".  Had a beautiful semi round-table with about 30+ stations; clear conditions; wide open band.

Never even made it to 160 meters, and heard many, many stations that I would have worked had there been more time.

Very gentlemanly operations, I must say - nothing like your typical SSB "Good Luck In the Contest" event.

Nice ! 

Too bad the old voice gave out.

With this kind of participation, it might be worth considering expanding the time of the Rally to something like 6:00pm on Friday night to 6:00AM on Sunday morning.  This would give more time to work other bands, and to hop around within bands.

Certainly, one could work many more of the participating stations.

All in all, a very successful event.   

Regards,

Steve

[AF9J]

Man Steve,

I heard you working a W9 around 0400 or 0500z. You were at least 10 over 9, and had great audio.  I couldn't even hear the W9.  I wish I could have worked you.  But I had VFO issues at the time (drive level, and VFO keying/muting), and was stuck on 3885 with a crystal.   By the time I got things straightened out (the solutions to the problems turned out to be so simple, I could have screamed), you were gone, as were most of the Heavy Metallers.  Oh well, glad to hear you had fun.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[K9ACT]

First of all, I said hi to Ellen several times, so we were thinking about you.

The time frame of the rally is important and sunset to sunrise puts serious limitations on who can work whom.

For example, I heard W9T frequently during the day and know he was all over the place at night but I was never able to hear him after dark.  This applies to many stations in round tables that I could not hear.

This makes no sense and I would suggest Noon to Midnight as one alternative or the whole weekend, as has been suggested would be another.

K9 America... just 29 contacts but that was about 20 more than a typical night and they were all solid gold. 

js

[AF9J]

Oh Man Jack! 

I wish I'd heard you.  It's been a little noisy with all of the snow we had on Friday.  I will be on today.  Yep,  75 went long on me by 7 PM last night.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[W9GT]

What a great time!  Sorry I missed you Jack, but conditions were really wild.  Worked many stations on the long haul, but most of the time couldn't hear stations closer than 300-400 miles.   

160M was terrible here.  Only heard a few stations.  Called CQ several times...no response....went back to 75M where things were hopping.  Unfortunately , I had a midnite curfew, so had to QRT then.

Ellen, sorry we didn't hear you. You deserve an A for effort, at least.  If you are around this morning...will listen for you on 3885.

I hope that in future years a few of the parameters for the Heavy Metal activity can be tied down a little more...such as times for start and stop, etc.

Anyway.....thanks to all for a really fun night of AM activity.

73,  JAck, W9GT

[WA1GFZ]

Yup,
Great time on 75. I was all set to go on 160 and had a RX on 160 all night.
75 never closed down just went through a few dips 6:30 to 8:00 EST. When i broke for supper I was all set to go on 160 but 75 recovered.

[AF9J]

What a great time!  Sorry I missed you Jack, but conditions were really wild.  Worked many stations on the long haul, but most of the time couldn't hear stations closer than 300-400 miles.   

160M was terrible here.  Only heard a few stations.  Called CQ several times...no response....went back to 75M where things were hopping.  Unfortunately , I had a midnite curfew, so had to QRT then.

Ellen, sorry we didn't hear you. You deserve an A for effort, at least.  If you are around this morning...will listen for you on 3885.

I hope that in future years a few of the parameters for the Heavy Metal activity can be tied down a little more...such as times for start and stop, etc.

Anyway.....thanks to all for a really fun night of AM activity.

73,  JAck, W9GT

Thanks Jack,

You and W8W (W8TOW) had great signals for a while around 6:30-7PM.  You had a nice roundtable going on 3885.  About 10 minutes after I first heard you, you mentioned that the band seemed to be going long.  Soon afterwords, both you and W8W dropped into the noise.  I wish I'd been on earlier.  But a friend of mine who lives out of state called me on the phone. She kept me on the phone for 3 hours (I have to let her talk herself out, or else she takes it personally)!  So, I wasn't able to get the Scout fired up until 6:30 or so.  I just finished checking the bands.  Nothing on 7290, 14286, or even 10m SSB (which would make me scoot up to 29.0 AM & call CQ).  I'd love to QSO with you on 3885 (or any other freq. now that I have the VFO working right), but 75 is noisy, and the only AM QSO I hear (it was on 3885) is kind of weak.  It's your call Jack (and yours too Jack, K9ACT).

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[W9GT]

Ellen,

On 3885 right now talking with K8DMR.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[AF9J]

OK,

Give me a few - I have to retune the rig.

Ellen - AF9J

[AF9J]

Thanks for the offer Jack.  I tried breaking in a few times.  I can see that I'm not making it.  Maybe another time.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[W9GT]

Sorry Ellen...didn't hear anything here.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[steve_qix]

The time frame of the rally is important and sunset to sunrise puts serious limitations on who can work whom.

For example, I heard W9T frequently during the day and know he was all over the place at night but I was never able to hear him after dark.  This applies to many stations in round tables that I could not hear.

This makes no sense and I would suggest Noon to Midnight as one alternative or the whole weekend, as has been suggested would be another.

K9 America... just 29 contacts but that was about 20 more than a typical night and they were all solid gold. 

js

The whole weekend (more or less) for the time frame really might work out. 

In my original post, I suggested 6:00pm on Friday night as a start, because it's after work - you won't get people calling in "sick" to partake in the Rally    So, it gives the whole of Friday night/Saturday morning - then all day Saturday, Saturday night/Sunday morning, and then end at some reasonable time on Sunday.  I picked 6:00am as an arbitrary stop time, but it could be noon or 2:00pm on Sunday as well, which actually may be better for many.  Have to leave *some* time for family activities over that weekend

Regards,

Steve