Monday, May 2, 2011

Why not just join the party.

On Sunday I found myself with some spare time and an opportunity to get on the radio. Once again I wanted to give the KX1 a go to get used to the little rig. It was around 4 in the afternoon and from checking the propagation reports earlier in the day I was not sure how the bands were going to be. I was on 20 meters calling CQ and no matter where I went on the band  seemed to be filled with "party goers"....Florida QSO party goers that is....Instead of paddling up stream and calling CQ on an already busy band why not just join the party. So for about 45 minutes I did just that. Not only did it give me a great oppertunity to fine tune my skills with the KX1 I was also able to give some contest points away as well. The conditions I found changed very fast from signals  at 599 to then drop almost to the noise floor. I was able with these conditions to get some real hands on with adjusting the one filter the KX1 has and using the RIT. I was very impressed with how the little radio preformed. I seemed to have no troubles getting down into Sunshine state. In this contest the exchange is a signal report and my Province the Florida stations send their report and county There was one time I decided to send ? with regards to the county the fading was getting very bad.....in turn I was sent not their county but TU es GL DE.....and their call. I guess he thought I lived int he Province of  "?" My XYL for sure at times would agree with that.....:)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, those QSO parties and non-major contests are really a good way to determine just how effective one's station is. As you have discovered. 73 Dick N2UGB

VE9KK said...

Good evening Dick, yes it was fun and at the same time gave me the best workout for me and the radio as opposed to just calling CQ and had seen what happened.

Bert, PA1B said...

Hello Mike, Everytime it's great FUN to that this small RIG's and small signals are doing great. ? TU GL 73 72, Bert hi