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You can’t work ’em if you can’t hear ’em.
26 January 2016 | by The snow plows came through to clear our street. Even so, they never really plow the entire street. They clean it up for sure, so that you can travel safely down the road, but there's always that snow plow residue on the sides of the street. So, until the snow melts substantially, I can't park on the street, as I usually do, there's just not enough room to park and still have space for other cars to get by. That means I have park in the driveway. Since I generally get home last, I have to get up and move my Jeep when my wife Marianne has to leave for work at 5:00 AM (I've mentioned - she's a nurse).
So this morning, after moving my car for her, I made some coffee and headed down into the shack. I had about a half hour before I had to shower, shave and get dressed for work. I figured that maybe, just maybe, I'd hear K5P, as this is their last day on the island, I believe. And sure enough, there they were on 80 Meters, calling CQ! And from the rate they were answering stations, you could tell they were listening for ATNOs - stations they had never worked before (which would have been me!).
They were decently loud - about 559 with QSB on 3.530 MHz with QSB. Even so, this was the best I've heard them throughout the entire DXpedition. I put the KX3 into "Dual Watch" mode, so I could figure out where they were listening, and then I fired up the KXPA100 to 90 Watts and jumped into the fray.
Then some idiot proceeded to come onto their QRG (the frequency they were transmitting on) and began to send an non-ending string of S9 dits, totally obliterating them.
"You can't work 'em if you can't hear 'em."
Sigh.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].So this morning, after moving my car for her, I made some coffee and headed down into the shack. I had about a half hour before I had to shower, shave and get dressed for work. I figured that maybe, just maybe, I'd hear K5P, as this is their last day on the island, I believe. And sure enough, there they were on 80 Meters, calling CQ! And from the rate they were answering stations, you could tell they were listening for ATNOs - stations they had never worked before (which would have been me!).
They were decently loud - about 559 with QSB on 3.530 MHz with QSB. Even so, this was the best I've heard them throughout the entire DXpedition. I put the KX3 into "Dual Watch" mode, so I could figure out where they were listening, and then I fired up the KXPA100 to 90 Watts and jumped into the fray.
Then some idiot proceeded to come onto their QRG (the frequency they were transmitting on) and began to send an non-ending string of S9 dits, totally obliterating them.
"You can't work 'em if you can't hear 'em."
Sigh.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
One Response to “You can’t work ’em if you can’t hear ’em.”
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K5P, VP8, K1N etc… Seemed to bring out the LIDs and morons in droves… In the world of SSB most have never seem to heard of the words “SPLIT” or UP 5. But worst of all is the tuning up on the calling freq. Over, and over and over and over again…. Despite all their efforts to deny me my contact I got all three in my logbook. However, I am wondering how many others were screwed out a chance that could have been once in a lifetime to log these rare jewels….