I was very pleased that yesterday we had our first taste of TEP for this season. I have been watching with interest how in the last few weeks how the South Americans were working into the Caribbean and the lower United States and the Australians and New Zealanders were working into Japan and with the us (the South Africans) in the middle not seeing or hearing any signs of a opening, very frustrating to say the least.
That all changed yesterday: The first indications of the opening was being able to hear the Iran TV signal on 48.239 MHz Eventually it peaked at 5 S-points with 3 sub-carriers visible both sides of the main carrier. Soon after that the 5B4CY beacon and after that the SV1SIX beacons were copied.
Needless to say the word spread via the cluster and there were many European stations trying to see what could be worked. I managed to make 39 QSOs using both CW and SSB. Unfortunately no new DXCC entities, but that will come…….
With a bit of luck we will have a good TEP season and this will make my effort to work 6M during the upcoming 3DA0FC DX expedition worthwhile.
73, Pierre ZS6A
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| 6M TEP 21 Feb 2012 |
It's great you were able to get 39 QSO's in and yes once things hit the cluster that's when things get real crowed for sure.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike,
ReplyDeleteIt sure helps having the DX cluster and the indispensable ON4KST VHF chat facility.
Having said that once the opening occurs there is no time to monitor the cluster.
The openings on 6m are rare and it is great fun to be there when it does happen.
73, Pierre ZS6A