Band conditions (at least on 75/80 meters) have been more of the same …. as one wag sent on the KYN the other night, “… band broke …”
Friday evenings after 0000 Zulu are usually interesting on the band because that's when the contest of the weekend usually fires up. Some weekends its phone, others CW, and yet others RTTY or other digital. The OK DX contest spurred a good bit of RTTY activity on 80 last night — nothing like the level of a majory RTTY contest, but fairly active nonetheless.
My barometer for checking propagation for the 10 p.m. KSN CW net is to first listen 500 Hz below net frequency. The Idaho-Montana Net takes place there, and if I hear their NCS, chances are the KSN NCS will be weak as pond water.
Last night the IMN NCS was S9 plus on a band that was fairly active. The KSN NCS was inaudible for the preamble, thanks to a RTTY contester on top of the frequency. The contester moved and I found the NCS hip deep in QRM and QRN. His signal did gain some strength over the next few minutes, and his early QNI had pretty good sigs. I joined the fray and the net ran its normal course, everyone heard everyone else.
Other than net operation, I did work some CW DX a couple of nights ago with my latest favorite CW key (1976 Lightning Bug DeLuxe). There was an HB9 pounding in like a local. He generated a quasi-pileup — a continuous string of stations calling him, but not quite the mass of sigs you find on really rare DX. The only problem I had was the fact someone else was calling him during one of my transmissions, which is distracting as heck when you're running QSK. You wonder “does the DX hear my puny 100 watts??” He never missed a beat.
They say “familiarity breeds contempt,” well it also builds CW speed. I've cautiously determined that my regular CW forays have actually helped boost my copying ability. No, I'm not at 40 words per, but I'm at least as good as I ever was (for what that's worth!).
SKN PLANS. Since nearly being discontinued a number of years ago for lack of interest, Straight Key Night has grown each year and last year recorded the greatest participation ever. There's some speculation that this year will again set a participation record. Now that CW is no longer a requirement, the theory is that it is emerging as an active artform to be pursued by its fans, much like AM'ers who keep that spark alive as part of the ham radio hobby.
I've toyed with the notion of sending unique QSLs to all my SKN contacts. The card would feature the key I used for the QSO. I can photograph and produce the QSLs easy enough. The question becomes this: Some of the keys I'll use aren't exactly in mint condition, and the lights of the camera may only magnify their “character” (i.e. flaws and defects). I guess that's part of it, warts and all.
I enjoy just copying SKN QSOs … the fists you hear are really nice. I can't imagine sending as well as some of these ops do with a J-38 or other straight key. I'm not sure I'll even try one of my straight keys since semi-automatic keys are allowed. Those I can do.
That's it for this transmission … Christmas party this evening, so its time to whip the kids into submission and get to the bank before it closes. … 73 es CUL … de KY4Z … dit dit ….