Monday, August 27, 2012

Monday - A Digital Day

JT65A on 20 Meters Aug 27th, 2012
My operating has been minimal this summer but now that fall is here and in full swing, winter is not far away. I'm finding my shack once again. 

Today was a digital day as it has been very soggy outdoors. In between indoor chores, I ran a little JT65 on 20 and 17 meters this morning and afternoon. I always enjoy seeing someone come back to my CQ but the highlight for today was working AE7ID who sent the grid EN81. Now this got my attention as growing up and living in Ohio before moving to Alaska, I was very active for several years from EN81. Turns out that Steve lives in Vermilion, Ohio. Vermilion was east of where I lived and not far from the vocational school I attended my junior and senior year of high school. I enjoy making it back into Ohio and even more so when I work into my old grid square and better yet, my old county (Ottawa). 

The band was not that great again today but that is where JT65 shines. This is a great weak signal mode and it works well when propagation is not so favorable. After making several contacts on 20 meters, I dropped down to 17 meters and made a few there. After working JT65, I even popped down and made a BPSK31 contact on 20!  

As the sun heads south and the weather begins to become less favorable for outdoor activities, it will be time to warm up the equipment in the shack and begin preparing for the 2012-2013 contest season. Hard to believe it's not far away and I'm still wondering where summer went. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Phil, from what I see on the picture there is a lot of activity in north america. It has been ages that I was on JT65A. It's a great weak signal mode and very populair, just like PSK. 73, Bas

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  2. Bas, the band was up and down. It would fall away but come back from time to time. I've come to enjoy this mode as well, especially on the low bands where I don't have adequate antenna's.

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