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| JT65A on 20 Meters Aug 27th, 2012 |
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.
