I'm sitting on 21.315 MHz listening to a J88 on St. Vincent, hoping his signal builds back up from the noise.
I got in on the contest late last night, working a couple dozen contacts on 75 phone. It's a tough job on 75 with 100 watts, but I did snag a little DX: Honduras, Suriname, Barbados and … Canada? Yeah, big DX, like I said.
There were some impressive pile-ups last night; I didn't sit long and listen. When its so early in the contest there was little chance that my barefoot signal would bust a big pileup. Several of the stations I worked apparently had just shown up on the band and hadn't yet attracted a crowd.
Signals on 15 at lunch time are there, but weak. Fortunately the guys I'm working are listening hard for contacts.
The Yaesu FT-2000 is performing superbly. I had forgotten how useful the dual receive is; while waiting on my shot in a pile up I'm tuning the band spotting other stations.
I was impressed how well the rig performed last night amid crowded band conditions and big honkin' signals. I'm enjoying the larger monitor-sized band scope too.
I need to find someone local in order to check my transmit audio. The FT2K has plenty of ways to adjust the transmit audio, and while the Monitor is useful, I think the real story is how it sounds on someone else's radio. I've not yet played with any of the EQ adjustments. I've tried to run the Compression using the Heil HC-4 headset I use, but in my headphones the audio sounds pretty nasty, even at the lowest levels of compression.
Back to the contest, I see some new blips on the fish finder (as Charlie Brown, W4OLG (sk) used to call the band scope on his IC-756PROII). Speaking of Charlie, there's a group going over to meet Charlie's son Huston at his father's house to take down his antennas and perhaps inventory his ham gear.
It's all in pristine condition, and I get the feeling that some of locals believe they're going to pick up some bargains from Charlie's estate. My suggestion is to eBay it all; after all, by selling it “cheap” he's only cheating Charlie's heirs out of what's rightfully theirs. If it was Charlie making the sale for a cheap price, it would be different in my book — Charlie knew the value of his stuff. Getting something cheap from a family member who doesn't understand what its worth seems a little “vulture-like.” I'm probably going over there, but I have reservations about it. From my own experience, these sort of situations sometimes bring out the worst in people.
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