Worked Europe!!!!!

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Finally made connection with Henk, PE1MPH this morning on 3705 kHz at 0130 ET. Also worked Jean, F6AQK. Ken, W2DTC and Brent W1IA also joined in on the transatlantic fun. There was much QRN which made copy harder. If we had a typical quiet winter night, I think we could have made a nice 5-9 type QSO. We will try again. The first Euro AM contact on 80/75 meters. Cool!!!!

[KB2WIG]

goot........  klc

[pe1mph]

YES!!!!

Great qso this morning (in Holland).
I have recorded some.... sent to you!
Evenso F6AQK could hearing you....

Later more SSB on freq.

Hope to work you again DIRECT on 3705

Greetings,

Henk pe1mph from Dokkum, The Netherlands

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Here are a few snippets of how Henk was hearing us. Looks like they get SSB QRM over there too. Thanks for the recording Henk.

http://www.amwindow.org/misc/av/3705AM17Mar07depe1mph.mp3

[Bill, KD0HG]

Wait until I get the four 150' poles and the quarter-mile rhombic up....
Congrats, Steve.

[WD8BIL]

Wow... good catch guyz..... AM history fer sure !!

Bill: Sounds like ya got a plan with the big sticks !!!
Go for it Man !!

[N3DRB The Derb]

reminds me when I started working dx down in the window on 75 AM on Dobbins Island cause everyone else was asleep and no am anywhere. Went down in the window and started working some south and central americans. They didn't even know I was on am. Got 5 or 6 5x7's and 5x8's.

Across the pond is a sho nuff get down.

[k4kyv]

I wonder if Jean, F6AQK is part of the French-speaking AM group I frequently hear on 3550.  When the QRN is silent and propagation good, I hear them quite well in the early morning hours (0600-0800 GMT) using the 160m beverage receiving antenna.  I have heard some stations as loud as S9+10.  Most of the time there are one or two readable signals and the rest have detectable carriers and you can tell it's voice modulation and that's about all.  They are a group of early risers, since it's between 7 and 9 AM their time.  It is hard to catch a station ID because they operate fast break-in and identify infrequently.

I have tried listening to them on one of the web-based  remote  receivers located in Europe, but 3550 is smack in the middle of the European CW segment per volunteer European band plan, and the CW QRM left them no more readable than what I could hear here at my QTH.

The one or two loud stations in the group would easily be workable from N. America.  Pity they operate on a frequency below our voice allocations.

I suspect most of the stations in the group would come in QSO-quality to New England and the Maritimes.

[WA1GFZ]

Bill,
When I was a kid I ran a 2 wire rhombic 125 feet on a leg facing VK It was very cool on 20 meters running a 4-1000A. I don't think it needs to be at 150 feet though. I know some will argue it not that good of an antenna compared to a multielement beam but it sure worked for me.  I could piss with the big dogs to VK land.

[k4kyv]

I used to listen to ZL2BE in Hastings, NZ on 20m.  He would sometimes be the only audible signal on the entire 20m band, and his signal would come in stronger than the Radio New Zealand SW broadcast station in the 19m band.  He ran about 100 watts AM to a large rhombic on his sheep farm.

[wa1knx]

hey congrats, thats good dx for this time of year. I doubt I'd be able to hear
them on am here in AZ.  I work a lot of european dx from here, I'm not sure
why I can, other than the ground conductivity here from the minerals is good,
so the vertical beam plays. I heard the other day, that we have an advantage
with auroral bending down here ? never heard of it ? anyway congrats!

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Thanks fellas. Sure was fun. From the recordings, it sounds like Ken/DTC was the strapper over there.

[Bill, KD0HG]

Wow... good catch guyz..... AM history fer sure !!

Bill: Sounds like ya got a plan with the big sticks !!!
Go for it Man !!

Bud, if you think about it, I'm about as far west of the east coast as EU is to the east, and over land, not salt water. Working W1, 2 and 3 for me is big-time DX!
Yup, a rhombic like that would be do-able, but whotta job that would be.

I could find plenty of used Rohn 25 cheap, but I'm not as crazed as JJ is. 10 db of gain in your direction would be interesting, to say the least.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

It's 1539 miles from Williamsburg, VA to Berthoud, Colorado. It's 3913 miles to Dokkum, Netherlands (QTH of PE1MPH). The Euros are a lot further away than you are.

Better build a bigger antenna Bill!

[Bill, KD0HG]

You know, I keep thinking EU is only 2K miles from the US east coast.
Maybe the distance from Gander to the UK, LOL.

[k4kyv]

It's about the same distance from the extreme NE corner of Maine to Los Angeles as it is to the west coast of Ireland.  But the transatlantic path is over salt water, so the propagation to Europe should be better.

One problem is the time differential.  To work Europe before bedtime their time, you need to get on just after sundown here until about 8 pm, during the peak period of heavy domestic QRM.  Or to work them in the early morning their time, you need to get on during the wee hours here, from maybe 1 to 3 AM.

Sometimes I hear SSB signals in the DX window that are just as strong as any US signal on the band.  It should be no problem to make a solid AM to AM QSO under those condx.  But I would try down lower in the band, not in the middle of the window.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Looks like it's a little less than 2000 miles from Gander to Ireland. It's about 650-700 more from the  northeast corner of Maine. It's 2746 miles from Caribou, Maine to LA. You nailed it Don, it's about 2700 miles either way.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

No chance to work Henk and company this weekend with the SSB contest going on. I wonder how many more chances we'll have with thunderstorm/static season soon upon us.

FYI on lightning.

Electricity originates inside clouds. There, it forms into lightning, which is attracted to the Earth by golfers. After entering the ground, the electricity hardens into coal, which, when dug up by power companies and burned in big ovens called 'generators,' turns back into electricity... where it is transformed by TV sets into commercials for beer, which passes through the consumers and back into the ground, evaporates forming new clouds, thus completing what is known as a 'circuit”.