Saturday, March 26, 2016 — Last night after checking in to Georgia CW net, I tuned around a bit, and then dropped in on 40. 40 CW was booming. IARU Region 2 stations outside the U.S. were all over the CW subband on 40, thanks t0 — I later realized — the CQ WPX SSB contest this weekend.
I really wasn’t in the mood to jump into a phone contest, so I looked around and copied the mail on some of the slower signals (aka, under 20 wpm) I found on the band, and found my way back to 80.
This morning I returned to the shack and tuned around a while. Checking the DX spots, I saw that stateside contesters on 10 meters were working DX all across the band. I love 10 meters phone, it was the band where I made my first phone contacts all those years ago.
I was a little concerned, however — I recently changed microphones from my trusty (and dialed-in) Shure 55S clone to a Berhinger C-1 condenser mic. The Berhinger was a cheap eBay find, and it was dirt cheap. But I’ve always wanted to try a different mic, particularly a condenser mic. I’m still not 100 percent sure I have the EQ set up to suit me, but today on 10 meters I worked every station I called, and they had no trouble understanding me.
Of course, a DX station isn’t going to take a moment to critique one’s audio unless its really, really nasty, but from listening to my own signal, the mic is passable. I need to make more phone contacts, but for now I’m liking the look and feel of the mic.
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