The Band has been warmed !

[WD8BIL]

Great Nite on 80 meters.... YES.... 80 METERS !!!

The nite started with a "big bang" as I tuned down and found K4KYV holding
court on 3625+/-. In the next 2 hours of skipping around I had worked more than
20 AM stations. Some of the stations worked were:

KD0HG, K3V, W2ZM, WA1HLR, W9AD, W8ER, K1Q, K2VH,W9GOB, WB4WCJ, W2DTC.....

Biggest signal of the night was Don K4KYV followed closely by W9AD running neck to neck
with K3V.

Spin those dials friends. There's a whole new country out there to be discovered !

W8A reporting !

[WA1GFZ]

Yupper. Too bad it wasn't Friday night. dragging this morning.
Pink sKy about 6:45  AM

[WD8BIL]

Same here Frank !

Made it to work with 2 minutes to spare !!!

[Joe Long]

The 80 meter band finally crapped out at 2:15 am while I was in QSO with Duane Kk4AM on 3685. Had hoped for better condx but what can you do. JOE

[WD8BIL]

Well Joe... we can wait for tonite when the band is available in "primetime" !

Should be an interesting weekend on the bands.

Don't forget 40 meters !!!

[WA3VJB]

Hey Buddly, where should I look for you on 40 meters?

I want to thank Don, K4KYV for coming up with the "Bandwarming" idea, first posted on these pages.

It was a great time last night, and I've posted my logbook under the "Special Event Callsigns" thread that Phil K2PG initiated.

I've also got some sound files to render and post, in the time ahead.
Elsewhere, the fives seemed to have turned out too, but you'd never know it where I was sitting.

This is from Geoff, W5OMR, posted to the AM Reflector:
[/size][/color]

If you weren't on the air, then you was in the wrong damn place!

We were on 75 *and* 80m phone, tonight!

For this momentous occasion, Otis/K5SWK was on from John/WA5BXO and
BJ's/WB5KD hamshack.

There was W5AMI, KA5RHK, N5ECP, WD5JKO, Otis 'n them, and me, mobile on
my way home, on 3.880 till around 11pm.

I got home around 10:30pm - got on the big rig here at 10:40pm, and
fired up on 3.880Mc.  At 11pm, we moved on down to 3.650 and worked
W5TOP, WA5FRF, AD5HR, WA5BXO/K5SWK/WB5PKD, W7FG, W5I(WD5BZO), K5SOH and
WB5UGT on 75m phone.

I tuned around afterwards and worked K4KYV, K2VXV, W9GOB and W9AD on
3.705.  There was another AM QSO on 3.625, but didn't stick around to
work them.

I went to bed at 9:30 last night, and got up at 3am to go pee.  Back up
at 5:45am, had breakfast, went to class, got outta there at 3:15, drove
from Houston to Round Rock, picked up an AR-88 receiver, and then drove
home to San Antonio.  Long day, but happy band! :-)



--
Driving your AM Rig without a scope,
is like driving your car at night, without headlights. (K4KYV)

--
73 = Best Regards,
-Geoff/W5OMR

[Bill, KD0HG]

Absolutely rotten condx on my end. R3- R4 at best on everyone from KW1I to Buddly in Ohio.I did sorta hear ZM in there, but not good enuff to do a QSO. Even K4KYV was PW, but solid. I worked K0OJ who lives about 50 miles from me and the aurora flutter was so bad I could hardly understand him.
The best sigs for me were to the south, W5 and W6-land. K9AD was an exception, doing a great job from the midwest.

There might be a major band crap-out on the sunlit side of the Earth today, the K index was 9 early this morning.

[WD8BIL]

Was good hearin' ya HG ! Great job hanging in there for us.

Paul: I'll start the morning out around 7135 + !
Don't wanna get too close to the band edge of 7125.

Our Canadian friends should be in the 'hood, eh !!!

[KL7OF]

I heard you Bill HG.. and a host of 5's in Texas,OK, AR.... but the Aurora was making copy difficult at times...AM stations were spread out over the band from 3630 to 3780... Lots of activity..Keep it up this weekend !!    Steve

[WA3VJB]

You can hear how the band was kinda watery.


This recording was made on an SDR-1000 in Sandusky Ohio
at around 0600 GMT, 3825Kc.  3725Kc  (Thanks Ed !!)

[Ed-VA3ES]

Do you mean 3725,  Paul?   

[WB3JOK]

Lately I can't hear squat on 80/75 or 40 in Presque Isle. Must be the bottom of the cycle... couldn't get into my usual roundtable (the 7.272 "72 Rag Chew") on Sat. either

Except, of course, for a nest of morons on 3905 last night. Loudly audible bodily functions, foul language, an extensive exchange of homophobic insults... what a wonderful asset to the ham bands they were.

-Charles

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Yes, the band was CRAPPY for the phone expansion. Still managed to work about a dozen stations including: K8R, W8A, K3V, WA2PJP, W2XR and several others shortly after midnight. I set my watch by WWV and started calling a few seconds after midnight on 3715 kcs. The first response sounded more like a DX pileup, and I found myself trying to work folks quickly before the conditions deteriorated more. Not the way I had hoped it would unfold. Finally with 'PJP and 'XR both on frequency and hearing each other well enough to ragchew a bit, I wandered up band to 3725 to work Paul. Heard others in there, but very faintly. Frustrating!! Closed station around 2:30 or so and gave 'PJP a quick call to apologize for vanishing (wasn't my fault, the band folded).

Still, there was a good amount of activity even with lousy band conditions, and more over the weekend as the band slowly started the healing process. Those guys in VE land sure do come in loud down here, a couple hours south of the border.

I plan to activate K1Q over the Christmas weekend before it expires on midnight the 25th. Hope to hear more of you all out there, with better band conditions.

[WA3VJB]

So I said I was rolling tape last weekend, and I managed to get about TWO HOURS worth of great stuff out of the 8 hours or so that I was on the air.

From all that came a 3 minute spot produced in radio newsgathering style.

This is now airing on WA0RCR's 160M "Gateway" station and other outlets, mostly on FM repeaters across the country.


Thanks for contributing.[/color]

[N3WWL]

Great stuff, Paul.  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to that report.

[W8MAQ]

FB Paul et al on a great event and an excellent sounder! I'm sorry that I missed it.

Jim W8MAQ