wowbagger's Journal: CQ66 CQ66 de W6M

Well, last weekend (10th Sept 2005 - 11th Sept 2005) I did something different.

10th Sept 2005 - 18 Sept 2005 is Route 66 On The Air - where hams like me either

1. go to Route 66 to operate, or
2. try to contact those who are on Route 66.

Since I upgraded to Extra a couple of months ago, and can now operate on the HF bands, I thought "What the hell - let's go".

Some of you may have noticed that I submitted this to Technocrat. Now, some of you might wonder why I didn't submit a story to /. about this (and write about it here). Simple. Bruce is a ham, and Technocrat needs stories - I know I had a pretty high probability of getting it accepted there.

However, given that the average /bot's attitude toward hams is "Duuuuh, y'mean those l@m3rz who are keeping from getting my pr0n over the power lines? Su><or!", the fact that I would be mentioning Kansas (which most /bots seem to think is still in black and white), and I believe (rightly or wrongly) that I am on a shitlist with the /editors - I put my probability of getting that story slightly less than BillG giving RMS a big wet kiss on the lips - so why bother?

And yes, Virginia, Route 66 does go through Kansas - the extreme southeast corner, for about 13 miles. We many not get a mention in the song, but we ARE there. This is the first year that Kansas has had an official, recognized Route 66 special event station, but we've actually had folks there for 4 of the past 5 years.

So, I packed up my gear, and rolled down there after work last Friday. It's about a 3 hour drive from here to there (less, if you don't fear the deer. I really don't want to have to get my car fixed.)

Now, if you know anything about shortwave, you will know that we are pretty much in the "solar minimum" - the time when there are relatively few sunspots, and the ionosphere is, shall we say, not exactly conducive to HF propagation. Or put it another way, the bands are deader than a sack of hammers. Add to that the fact that last Wednesday we had an X17 solar flare that stirred things up enough to drive everything too far the other way (and kill the bands), and you don't exactly have a recipe for lots of action.

Also - we were operating out of the the Eisler Brothers Trading Post - which has been around since 1925. Just a couple of blocks away is a big coal fired power plant. Again - not a thing you want when you are trying to work HF.

However, Eisler has good sandwiches, that part of Kansas is very pretty (yes, Kansas does have scenic parts. How do you find them? Easy - look near the big highways - the scenic bits are no-where near them.) We got to talk to the tourists coming through on Route 66 - a whole busload of Brits came though on a tour.

The bands were DEAD. We took turns calling CQ, and occasionally getting a contact.

I was on the radio, calling CQ, when suddenly, "the band, she openna up!" We went from dead to a pile-up so bad I was working stations like it was a contest. I was having to say "OK, let's do this by prefix - stations with a Kilo prefix, call Whiskey-six-mike" just to be able to make out the calls instead of one big mush.

That lasted for about 80 contacts. Then, just as suddenly - THUD! the band closed up, and that was that.

Sunday, we never had any good openings like that. But it was still fun - the proprietors of Eisler Brothers came by to open the front porch up at 09:00, but the store itself was not going to be open until 11:00. So, here we are, trying to hear anything in the noise, when this couple pulls up in their rental. They, too, were from England, and they were taking a 4 week tour of Route 66, and wanted to stop at Eisler's. We told them the store was closed right now, but it will open in thirty minutes or so, and they decided to stay and chat. I gave them a few pointers on places to go and things to do (I've run out on I40 to CA about every year for the past decade over Christmas, so I know that stretch pretty well).

HEre's some pictures of where we operated from.

please, feel free

[zogger]

to do an update, and offer any of your new contacts to come and visit and contribute.

Brag tape?

[srhuston]

So for the non-/bots here and other hams, what were you running there?

Wish I'd known about that, I would've snuck up to the club shack to try to work you or other stations. Can't do much HF from home right now, living in an apartment on the second floor with no balcony - I can't even get away with a flagpole tied to a railing, since I have no railing :P

73 de W2SRH

Re:Brag tape?

[wowbagger]

The main SSB station was an IC706 into a GRV-5 up about thirty feet. The PSK stations was a (I believe) IC706 into a mag-mount vertical on the trunk of my car.

While I probably won't be there this weekend, somebody will - so you might try listening around 14.240-14.270 and see.

I may try to borrow a friend's HF rig and see if I can get anything on what I have here - a discone (I do not yet have an HF rig of my own, so I don't have much need for an HF antenna - when I get the rig, I can put up the antenna. I h

Re:Brag tape?

[srhuston]

I might give it a try. If the weather holds out, we'll be doing some work on the club repeater this weekend (replacing the hardline which is a bit water logged, while I swap the PA transistors).

Oh, and congrats on the upgrade to Extra!

And then there's hams like me

[Kymermosst]

Those who wish they had time to turn on the radio more than once a month...