Great Band Opening

[n4voxgill]

I just made contact from here in Texas to a special event station on the USS Missouri that is in Honolulu, HI. Contact made at 8:45 PM on freq of 18.155 USB. I was only using 60 watts of power. I am hearing station all over the US calling him. Band is sure open.

Gill

 

[n4voxgill]

This ship and almost 50 other decommissoned ships are having a special event. Picking up more ships on 20 meters around 14270 kHz.

 

[n3ncn]

Guess I need to get the old SW receiver out

 

[nexus]

I was on the MDXA DX Cluster today working 10 meter phone and noticed a lot of info being passed for the USS Missouri. I had no idea it was a special event. I don't know if it's all weekend long but if so I'm going to see if I can find them today after work.

btw, the dx cluster I use is telnet to mdx.datasync.com and login simply using your callsign, no password.

I worked some 10 meter this afternoon around 2100Z, Had an opening in Texas and PA. >> (EM50qj)

 

[ReceiverBeaver]

To be expected this time of year. Summer usually sees much better propogation on the higher frequencies. Have to keep in mind we're in the bottom of the sunspot cycle. About 2 weeks ago it started opening up and now there is daily DX on 10-11 meters and starting to get activity on 6 meters at 50mhz. For the CB'ers, time to dust off the sideband rig and shoot some skip. Back in the day, I've talked all around the world on a 12watt sideband CB. From eastern Europe down to Africa and out to pacifica dx'ing Japan, Australia, ect...Fun stuff.

 

[10-95]

Hey, here in Raleigh N.C. we are hearing FM broadcast stations out of Ontario! Unreal! It's been going on for a few hours now!

 

[jmp883]

It's been a great weekend for monitoring/DX-ing. I live in northern NJ and made numerous ham contacts on the 70cm band in Florida, North Carolina, and New Mexico. I was using both my 50W mobile rig and my 5W handheld working a local repeater on 443.850 MHz, about 20-25 miles away. The received and transmitted signals were outstanding! Who says only General and Extra-class licensees can work DX!

When I got to work at the part-time dispatch job both Saturday and Sunday nights we were receiving skip from departments from down south on our primary police channel, 37.300 MHz. The audio on these signals was also outstanding. Since I was off from the full-time dispatch job I didn't think to call and check to see if they were getting any skip as well. I doubt it since the full-time job operates on UHF and in all the years I've worked here we've never experienced skip that I've been aware of.

In regard to the ships, there was a nationwide event involving old US warships making contacts around the country. The radio club I belong to worked the event from the USS Ling, a submarine/museum in northern NJ.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi all,

Just to set the record straight, 17M openings at this point in the sunspot cycle are rare but when it opens it's G O O D! 20M has been a rollercoaster, one day good one day bad and often changes hour to hour. There's your solar activity, once in a while it burps. Like 6M, 10M experiences sporadic E which BTW is caused by UV radiation which is why it's prevelent when the sun is overhead in summer, it's not F skip caused by sunspots.

Beaver;
" For the CB'ers, time to dust off the sideband rig and shoot some skip."
Nice to see you're suggesting illegal activity again.
"Back in the day, I've talked all around the world on a 12watt sideband CB. From eastern Europe down to Africa and out to pacifica dx'ing Japan, Australia, ect...Fun stuff."
Yeah, I did it too but that was before you were born so the staute of limitations has run out. Oh, are you SURE of who you were talking to or was it me speaking in Spanish while adjusting the power to simulate QSB and claiming to be in Puerto Rico or Cuba? (;->) FYI, Pacifica is a radio network, the postal delivery name is Oceanica.

Joe;
A few years ago there was such fantastic coastal ducting I worked from the Canadian Maritimes to the Florida Keys through a local 2M repeater using an HT at 1W output. We all had a blast but the tricky part was waiting long enough for ALL the repeaters to drop before transmitting so the local one could be heard. I have to admit that sometimes one of us would light up two or more repeaters and it became an ERP battle. The difference however is we were working our local repeaters, not "DX".

Darn it, I missed that special event, I was copying BPSK31 on 20M and the stations were using SSB up the band, GGGRRRR! Joe, one of my friends served aboard the Ling, I would have loved to work her. Another served aboard the USS New Jersey BB62 Amateur callsign NJ2BB docked in Camden. Come to think of it, I'm well out of range of both except perhaps on 40M, I should have been listening there. Oh, don't call them OLD, the grey ladies never grow OLD, they only get rusty bottoms like some of us hams. (;->)

Here's a shot of the Grand Damme herself with the antennas clearly visible. The two wires over the turrets aren't Navy issue, that is unless the gunners want to put a 16" shell through them. (;->)

 

[scankid2591]

From eastern Europe down to Africa and out to pacifica dx'ing Japan, Australia, ect...Fun stuff

You could talk to people from eastern Europe on a CB?

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Kid and all,

Never mind CB, the 20M Amateur band is open to EU daily and 40M and 80M at night, trouble is the summer static on the lower frequency bands. CB? We don' nee' no steenking CB.