One that didn't get away
Apr. 29th, 2012 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
banjoplayinnerdLast week I got 200 feet of hookup wire from a supplier on eBay. I wasn't sure at the time what I would do with it, other than put it to work pushing radio waves. So I did some thinking and some planning, and about two hours ago I took the wire outside and started making a loop out of it along the back yard fence. The back yard fence is only about 8' tall, and taller is always better, so I wasn't sure what results I would get, if any, but I figured I'd give it a try.
I got the loop hung, ran the lead-in wires into the shack, and hooked everything up. Now it was time to test. The first test is, can I hear anything? I tuned to the 20 meter band and heard one of the "regulars" there calling CW. So far so good.
Second test, can I tune up the loop? That worked fine too. Now it was time to test.
20 meters was pretty quiet, so I went up to 17 meters, an underused band that hams have only had access to for about 30 years, to see what would happen. On the frequency the radio was tuned to, I heard something interesting going on, so I stopped to listen.
Time for a brief historical diversion.
April 2012 marks the 95th anniversay of the Battle of Arras, a major offensive during World War I near the town of Arras in northern France. Radio clubs often have special station setups and callsigns for big events like World's Fairs and Olympics. There were several special event stations to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic during April; I heard one but wasn't able to work him.
Up until today I had only ever heard about three or four special event stations and had only worked one, and that one was for Mt. St. Helens. The station I was hearing was using the call sign TM95BA. "TM" means the station is from "continental France," presumably as opposed to overseas possessions like St. Pierre et Miquelon. "95" represents the 95th anniversary, and "BA" for "Battle of Arris". Presumably the initials are the same in French.
TM95BA was coming in reasonably clearly and was firing off signal reports in rapid success. If there's one activity that makes JT65 seem leisurely by comparison, it's a rare station making his way through a gaggle of stations trying to contact him (this is called "working a pileup"). He wasn't swamped as far as I can tell, but he was going at the rate of about 3 contacts every 2 minutes, mostly to North American stations with a few Europeans in the mix.
I moved off frequency, made sure the new loop would tune up, boosted my power a little and moved back onto his frequency. Proper etiquette is to wait until a station finishes a contact before calling them, so I dutifully waited for him to signal QRZ? (which is used as an invitation to call) or 73 ("Best regards" - traditional ham signoff) or something similar before I called.
I started calling about 4:45 in the afternoon and he kept coming back to other stations. I don't blame him; they were probably swamping me and my Morse code is pretty rusty. Finally, at 5:03, he sent out a WA7 call. It sounded like what someone might think I sent, but I couldn't be sure. Was he calling me back? I didn't answer, but waited to see what he would do.
WA7? WA7 PSE K. "WA7 station, please go ahead." I slowed way down, both to send better Morse and to make sure he got my call right. If he misheard my call, I would get no credit for the contact.
WA7KPK 599 TU. "Your signal is excellent, thank you." In pileups and contests we hams always lie about our signal strength. It's always the best it could be, even if you have to dig the signal out of the noise. It's faster that way. The DX station knows he's getting out, and the other station just wants the contact. He can get a signal report from ordinary, non-rare stations.
TU 5NN E E. "Thank you. Let's stipulate that you have a perfect signal. Dit dit." The "dit dit" is the end of "shave and a haircut" and often tacked on to a final transmission to mean "I'm done." This is a very minimal contact. He already had my callsign, and I wanted to finish the contact quickly so he could move on to other stations. That's also proper etiquette.
E E QRZ? "Dit dit. Next??"
I had worked Europe! First time in over 30 years. I have to stress that France is by no means considered a rare station, but I managed to get the attention of a station that a lot of hams were looking for. It's always a very happy feeling. And there might be a nice commemorative QSL card in it for me.
I think I can safely say the loop works. Now for the big test. Does it work on the lower bands where I want to be able to check into some of the local nets? That's the real purpose of the project; anything else is gravy.
Now that I've proved the radio works I think I'll go chase Igor the Younger around for a while. Time for more contacts later.
I got the loop hung, ran the lead-in wires into the shack, and hooked everything up. Now it was time to test. The first test is, can I hear anything? I tuned to the 20 meter band and heard one of the "regulars" there calling CW. So far so good.
Second test, can I tune up the loop? That worked fine too. Now it was time to test.
20 meters was pretty quiet, so I went up to 17 meters, an underused band that hams have only had access to for about 30 years, to see what would happen. On the frequency the radio was tuned to, I heard something interesting going on, so I stopped to listen.
Time for a brief historical diversion.
April 2012 marks the 95th anniversay of the Battle of Arras, a major offensive during World War I near the town of Arras in northern France. Radio clubs often have special station setups and callsigns for big events like World's Fairs and Olympics. There were several special event stations to commemorate the sinking of the Titanic during April; I heard one but wasn't able to work him.
Up until today I had only ever heard about three or four special event stations and had only worked one, and that one was for Mt. St. Helens. The station I was hearing was using the call sign TM95BA. "TM" means the station is from "continental France," presumably as opposed to overseas possessions like St. Pierre et Miquelon. "95" represents the 95th anniversary, and "BA" for "Battle of Arris". Presumably the initials are the same in French.
TM95BA was coming in reasonably clearly and was firing off signal reports in rapid success. If there's one activity that makes JT65 seem leisurely by comparison, it's a rare station making his way through a gaggle of stations trying to contact him (this is called "working a pileup"). He wasn't swamped as far as I can tell, but he was going at the rate of about 3 contacts every 2 minutes, mostly to North American stations with a few Europeans in the mix.
I moved off frequency, made sure the new loop would tune up, boosted my power a little and moved back onto his frequency. Proper etiquette is to wait until a station finishes a contact before calling them, so I dutifully waited for him to signal QRZ? (which is used as an invitation to call) or 73 ("Best regards" - traditional ham signoff) or something similar before I called.
I started calling about 4:45 in the afternoon and he kept coming back to other stations. I don't blame him; they were probably swamping me and my Morse code is pretty rusty. Finally, at 5:03, he sent out a WA7 call. It sounded like what someone might think I sent, but I couldn't be sure. Was he calling me back? I didn't answer, but waited to see what he would do.
WA7? WA7 PSE K. "WA7 station, please go ahead." I slowed way down, both to send better Morse and to make sure he got my call right. If he misheard my call, I would get no credit for the contact.
WA7KPK 599 TU. "Your signal is excellent, thank you." In pileups and contests we hams always lie about our signal strength. It's always the best it could be, even if you have to dig the signal out of the noise. It's faster that way. The DX station knows he's getting out, and the other station just wants the contact. He can get a signal report from ordinary, non-rare stations.
TU 5NN E E. "Thank you. Let's stipulate that you have a perfect signal. Dit dit." The "dit dit" is the end of "shave and a haircut" and often tacked on to a final transmission to mean "I'm done." This is a very minimal contact. He already had my callsign, and I wanted to finish the contact quickly so he could move on to other stations. That's also proper etiquette.
E E QRZ? "Dit dit. Next??"
I had worked Europe! First time in over 30 years. I have to stress that France is by no means considered a rare station, but I managed to get the attention of a station that a lot of hams were looking for. It's always a very happy feeling. And there might be a nice commemorative QSL card in it for me.
I think I can safely say the loop works. Now for the big test. Does it work on the lower bands where I want to be able to check into some of the local nets? That's the real purpose of the project; anything else is gravy.
Now that I've proved the radio works I think I'll go chase Igor the Younger around for a while. Time for more contacts later.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 03:28 pm (UTC)The software has a feature you can use to find out how far away the other station is. Turns out France is roughly the same distance from me as Japan, but for some reason I've been hearing Japan better than anything in Europe. Maybe that'll change now.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 04:49 pm (UTC)I really like these updates. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 05:20 pm (UTC)It's kid of frustrating, I can hear East Coast stations working Hungarians and Latvians and Swedes all the time but I can seldom hear the other end of the conversation.
I'm glad you like the updates. Sometimes I wonder if people are at all interested in the ham radio posts. I like to think of it as an insight into a hobby most people probably think of as kind of weird or "Didn't that go out with button shoes?" but is still evolving and interesting, even in a day when you can fire up Skype and talk to the same people I'm chasing on the air.