Anyone doing any operating lately?

[K5UJ]

I'm beginning to feel like I'm not going to remember how to fire up the station if I ever get to try, the way the wx isn't giving any breaks.  It seems like for the past several weeks 98% of the time the wx is either:

About to thunderstorm, so what's the point of trying to have a QSO
Storming,
Or is storming somewhere else so the QRN is impossible.

Or it's 98 degrees outside and 85 in the shack and I can't take any more heat from tubes.

So, when I'm not working I'm reading, surfing the net, moving parts around, working in the shop, and shopping for parts (to move around or work on in the shop).

Anyone else?   Or am I missing a lot of 40, 75, 160 activity?   I hope I can have a rx fired up tomorrow to catch any activity from Derb's Memorial cookout.   

Most exciting antenna work so far:  gearing up to put up a bigger TV antenna.   And I don't watch TV (I just want to be able to).

rob

[W5COA]

Early mornings 3880-3890; early to mid afternoons on 7160. You should hear someone, or put out a call.

[W1AEX]

Rob, the bands have seemed very flat during the day, and the static crashes in the evening have pretty much made it crappy at night here in the northeast. Lately, I have been playing with CW, PSK, and RTTY up on 20 meters when I feel like playing radio. I ran into Jack - W9GT from the board here and had a nice old buzzard chat on psk one afternoon. I haven't really heard any 6 meter or 10 meter AM breaking through at this point either. Seems like we are going through a temporary "radio recession" at this time!

Rob  

[Pete, WA2CWA]

That's why a number of us operate other modes and other bands when a radio fix is demanding. 20 meters is hot right now with world-wide contacts. 6 meters has been open all day. VHF/UHF contest also is this weekend. Lots of things to do on the radio if you're flexible.

[K5UJ]

20 meters, SIX meters 

I think I'll try 30  meter CW.

or more likely go back to my projects.

I'm still enjoying the little AA5 octal tube Admiral rx I fixed up from 1951 (or 52, can't remember which).  I can't get over how great it sounds.  I run it at 95 volts off a variac.  It makes me want to throw out everything I have that is solid state.

[DMOD]

Mainly operating AM or psk on 20 meters since thunderstorms have the lower bands in disarray.

But I haven't got the chance to do all that much operating with our current workload at work.

I did finish up the Halli HX-140 and gave it back to the older gentleman. I need to work up a FET-based BFO for it since the little Halli doesn't do SSB very well.

Working on repairing a voter for the EMA group's repeater nearby.

Need to finish up my 6146-pair AM exciter and the ClassE tranx.

Phil - AC0OB

 

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I've been on a few times over the last week. Now and then we have a night down here without waterfall static. Worked a fellow in Pittsburgh a few nights back running his ARC-5 transmitter and a BC-348. Pretty cool!

It's really hit-or-miss this time of year if you get on at night. Especially here in the south, the nights you can actually hear other stations are few and far between.

[K5UJ]

part of my problem is I'm lazy.   It takes around 20 minutes to go around hooking up feedlines, plugging gear in, turning everything on getting it all warmed up....and I don't want to do all that, then reverse everything two hours later because there are storms in the forecast overnight, so I just don't bother and do something else.   I study the wx maps, look at where the lightning is and read the local NWS forecaster comments and if it looks like the probability of a middle of the night storm is slim to none, I'll fire everything up or do it in the morning if I'm gg to be around all day, but during the week when I'm working these conditions don't get met very often.   I really do not like waking up to a flash bang rumble at 2 a.m. and remember I left all the gear and antennas hooked up.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Seems like the lightnings either just moving away, or just starting in here lately.  That and work, and the kids summer time scheds...  Not much time fer lighting filaments.  Plus Juniors home from the university (graduated, now looking for work) and his room is right next to the shack so that also puts some limits on benchwork as the stuff that was accumulating in his room now has been moved to the shack.

On a high note, I got the cabinet of my Zenith Floor model refinished... New speaker cloth & 6 or 7 coats of clear lacquer over the repair & stain.  She looks Marvelous.  

[WA3VJB]

Early mornings 3880-3890; early to mid afternoons on 7160. You should hear someone, or put out a call.

Yeah, that's really about it for me.

Here's why:

http://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/explorer.html

[KX5JT]

I made a few 10 meter AM QSO's.

Mostly I've been playing with Feld Hell, Contestia and Olivia on 40, 30 and 20 meters.

Feld Hell is really cool.... it is QRO friendly and has analog properties.  The better the signal the darker the print on the emulated paper dot-matrix printout.  QSB fades translate into lighter print instead of garbled ascii like other digital modes.

I did make a quick 75-meter AM QSO with KC4SSB, N2XD and N4DKD a few mornings ago pre-dawn but the static was not fun.

[k4kyv]

I'm beginning to feel like I'm not going to remember how to fire up the station if I ever get to try, the way the wx isn't giving any breaks.  It seems like for the past several weeks 98% of the time the wx is either:

About to thunderstorm, so what's the point of trying to have a QSO
Storming,
Or is storming somewhere else so the QRN is impossible.

Or it's 98 degrees outside and 85 in the shack and I can't take any more heat from tubes.

So, when I'm not working I'm reading, surfing the net, moving parts around, working in the shop, and shopping for parts (to move around or work on in the shop).

Anyone else?   Or am I missing a lot of 40, 75, 160 activity?

Pretty much the same here. I have been doing more landscaping work and house restoration during the day, and playing internet at night.  Maybe some long set-aside reading or a little radio shop work when I feel ambitious. I regularly check the lightning storm map, and if it looks reasonably good, turn on the receiver to check conditions.  Once in a great while I actually find quiet band conditions, but even then it may be hard to make a contact because apparently everyone else just assumes condx would be rotten, so they don't bother to listen. I'll throw on the automated CQer, and eventually some slopbucketeer comes back with his ricebox in AM mode for the first time ever. We usually have a brief QSO; usually he is impressed by the voice quality of AM and says he might try the mode again, but sometimes we can't find anything to talk about that interests us both.  Occasionally, however, an interesting in-depth conversation results when we happen upon some common interest.

We are having record-breaking temperatures right now, weather that's more normal for the dog days of July and August than for early June, so even the outdoor activity is limited during much of the day. Gobal warming must be back on after all... This is typical of what I have been seeing lately on Vaisala:

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Worked some 6 meter AM Friday night. Good Sporadic E. Worked several stations in the central part of the country and KS2AM in Jersey. Unfortunately, too many stations all trying to call CQ and/or hold QSO's on the 50.4 calling frequency resulting in lots of QRM.

[K1DEU]

Here HF and LF are Winter time sports.

VHF and UHF are Summertime sports with many rag chewing on FM nowdays from home with reasonable local Lightning  down time. This welcome rag chewing through repeaters and a little direct shows Americans are rallying around what little remains without fear of political topics.

[K5UJ]

Hmm okay thanks; sounds like it is time to do some CW operating.   We had three days of miserable heat and humidity, then a cold front came through Wed. night or Thurs. morning and the temp. dropped about 35 degrees.   One day it was in the mid 90s, the next day mid 50s.  Crazy.

[KM1H]

The foundation here sits in blasted granite and stays 55-70F in the summer even in a contest. Its also externally and internally insulated.

Ive also been on 6 and 10 AM/ SSB a lot since E skip has been hot recently. The E was up into 2M in several places in NE yesterday.

[K5UJ]

Well, I've been listening to 75 m. static to see if anyone shows up but something tells me it's gg to be a nice evening to do some reading 

[KB2WIG]

I continued to paint my cellar walls.

Got on 2m ssb fired up the ricebox, and made a contact in the ARRL Vhf Corntest. Then I drained a 807, and here I be.

I got out of work at 4P and forgot to see if there was an on air event -- the Derb memorial. I hope it went well.

klc

[KC2TAU]

I really haven't heard many folks on AM,at least on the lower bands. I usually listen around noon,5pm and 9pm as that is how things usually panned out during the winter but summer is a whole different kettle of washers.

[K5UJ]

Well desperation results in experimentation 

I discovered my KW matchbox will give me 50 ohms on 10.1 MHz when using my 20 meter dipole.  So I fired up my seldom used Ten Tec Omni 6 and had a couple QSOs last night around 10.125; one with WB0CCF and another one later on with a guy in I think, Denmark.  Unfortunately, my CW skill really needs some practice--I'm pretty rusty--so I guess I'll be working on that now.  It's probably a good thing as I need to not let my CW ability completely deteriorate.  I used to be pretty good at it (back when CW was all I ever operated).

[Opcom]

No operating in a few weeks. Been working on completely re-doing the shack area and lab area, The entire building is in disarray, most things disconnected so racks can be wheeled around. Summer means working inside, got carried away and decided to sell some of the transceivers a collector's been wanting, so those have to be dug out next. The closest thing to operating is some SWLing on the house receiver. The upside is I have found things I thought were lost.

[k4kyv]

Sometimes I feel like the guy in Al Capp's Li'l Abner, who always had the little rain cloud hovering over his head and raining on him no matter where he went.

[K5UJ]

I've sort of given up and have drifted off into other radio related things.  I got my June ER today and looked at that.  Gary K0CX (I think I have his call right) is involved with a major auction in August in SD, I forget the name of the SK who's estate is being auctioned off a well known AMer whom most of you probably knew...hang on I'll see if I can find him....well I'm getting older and hving trouble keeping everything in my head but anyway big ad for it in ER, gazillion broadcast rigs, and a looad of other choice gear, seven 75-A4s...purchased a RCA 1955 model 9x561 AM bc rx octal 5 tube AA5 with a big 8" speaker so I want to get it sounding as beautiful as the other one I recently finished which I am enjoying quite a bit.  I am discovering the wide passband and fine tube audio quality my parents generation enjoyed but about which most people today are ignorant of, because compared to the restored AA5 rx, my s.s. GE portable sounds like audio played through a pillow, and lastly, I have been tracking down a few AC line problems in the house, one a faulty neutral return causing 2.5 A current on the cold water pipe ground (city electrical dept. coming out to replace service drop) and conducted RF noise coming in on the line and making the house wiring an antenna that gets into my AM bc band rx as modulated 120 cps hum.  That one, will probably only be dealt with by having some kind of filter on the entrance and ICE used to make one, but because of the recent tragic SK status of their founder, they are not much in business now.   So I have to figure out another solution.  how's this for an on-line buzzard transmittion.

[KB2WIG]

Don Btfsplk

[K2PG]

I haven't been on much, with the exception of 2 meter FM from the car, due to a busy schedule and high static levels on 160. I may fire up one of the big rigs on 160 if the conditions are decent over the weekend. Otherwise, I might listen for some sporadic-E on 6 meters from the place in NJ. I did work 6 meters during the June VHF Contest from my club station, K3YTL, which was doing some mountaintopping in Pennsylvania.

Now...if only I can find homes for some of those pesky cats at my place here in PA!