[600MRG] WH2XGP update

[John Langridge]

>Now at 0500z most of the country 
has gone to bed so if they haven't left their WSPR station on, I'm out 
of luck.

No doubt thats a huge problem.  summertime late starts are the pits.. Summers here, things don't really start cranking until about 3 hours after last light.  Hopefully most rx guys are not shutting down at bed time unless there is a possibility of storms.  seems from my periodic checks over night that quite a few rx stations remain on throughout the night.  I am sure some shut down.  Some on TX have various reasons, other and wx, to shut down over night.  I recall Pat /6 had concerns about allowing his system to run unattended over night because of the fire concerns with a kw input transmitter.  Everyone has to determine their risk tolerance.  I started a fire on January 3rd of this year in my ATU and was fortunate that the power supply detected a problem and shut everything down.  I tend to wake up and check things during the night more now as a result.  


>but last night was a bit slim 
here.

yeah, the lack of /20 , XSV and XAR plus the other guys that tend to show up in CA and further NW is always hard, I am hip to that - it definitely shows just how valuable and important they are to our operations.  There are known issues, like /20 working on his other antennas, XSV who is preparing to move up your way so no antennas and XAR who has a day job and is also still working out the finer points of his station.  Being the dead of summer, I am sure many others are on vacation since many seem to happen right around the 4th of july and I am very certain you are taking that into account.  I recall times last summer when  it was just XKA, XJM, XXM (later once his grant came through) and myself with just AC0ZL listening..We are hugely blessed to have the number of people who continue to show up in the middle of the summer...Some of those RX guys may be using the version of the software that allows them to jump bands and listen for a period of time
 in each bands WSPR window.  As we stalwarts know, when you walk away is when the opening will happen and I am sure that is going on.  I do see guys in the east that come and go through the evening with regularity. But back on point, yeah, it can and will be slim during the summer... that does not seem to happen in the winter as you know and if it does, conditions are good enough to make it across country since we have more darkness...


>It doesn't make any sense at all to me to do it any differently!

that certainly makes sense, particularly if you are courting "local" stations to get them to listen.  I periodically run during the day as necessary but I am going to save the light bill, at least until september when *I* can better justify running my station 24/7.  If anyone needs a test signal, just say the word, any time of day..  I'm glad you are on the air now, Larry...

>Speaking of activity, where are all these new grant people? Are they off 
in the weeds messing with obscure modes or micro power CW or are they 
even on the air at all? It boogles my mind to see folks going through 
the effort of applying and paying for the license grant and then not 
getting on the air.

As stated before, its the summer so that changes people's plans quite a bit... I know of several guys locally that are out of town and / or indisposed at the moment, for example.  Other filed at the start of the summer thinking they were going to have 3 months before their grants came through.  Just prior to this summer, that was the case, referencing WH2XCR in HI, WH2XAR in AZ and WH2XES here in NTX.  Those guys took 3+ months.  Then summer hit and we had 5-7 apps enter the bullpen, yourself included, and OET seems to be kicking them out the door pretty quickly - no complaints.. Like you, I was ready for day 1 and even rearranged my schedule that day so I could be on the air testing all day long so I could be on the air that night.  Many guys may not have that luxury.  Other guys are like the N0 station in Kansas, we have no idea what happened to him.  He got his grant and never got running.  I figure he got sick or something worse which is why
 I have not pried more into it.  so you never know whats happening with people and everyone has a different motivation but what I can tell you based on conversations that I have with people who are applying for grants is that they are preparing for winter.  I often remind them that we are here all year long but most have their sights set on great winter operating, whether that includes WSPR or not.  I absolutely respect that.


>Maybe there is another venue that I am not aware of where announcements 
of activity are being made?

I wish I knew..making reports to the reflector seems to be ok still as time is not necessarily of the essence. .for arranging sked and such, I've always thought a chat app like the ON4KST lowband chat would be appropriate (http://www.on4kst.com/chat/start.php).  I typically use the telnet portal rather than the web portal and seems to work well.  The key is getting other guys to use it.  a DL setup a 630m chat for making skeds but no one used it so it disappeared... the other option is to set up an email distribution list for quick blasts for Skeds but that might lead to a LOT of messages... the chat app seems to make the most sense to me but maybe there are other options.


I'm looking forward to getting further away from the summer hump and activity really picking up.  It was nice to work XJM this past weekend on CW and I am looking forward to some upcoming things with XXM very soon during the day..

73 and thanks for being at least as passionate about this stuff as the rest of us!  thats one of the things that makes it really  good...


John XIQ



________________________________
 From: Larry <larry at w7iuv.com>
To: 600mrg at w7ekb.com 
Sent: Tuesday, July 8, 2014 8:34 AM
Subject: Re: [600MRG] WH2XGP update
 

John,

From out here in left field, things look a lot different.

For instance, at 0400z the sun is just at the horizon and there is very 
little chance of hearing much from the east for about an hour when the 
"sunset flash" is currently happening. Now at 0500z most of the country 
has gone to bed so if they haven't left their WSPR station on, I'm out 
of luck.

Friday nite wasn't too bad as I recall but last night was a bit slim 
here. I did log your signal John, and VE7BDQ but that was all that made 
it through my noise. My only reception reports were from the usual 
western guys and KL7L.

My plan is to keep the station running WSPR 24/7/365 except for those 
periods when I need to work on it or need it for CW/JT9 activity. It 
doesn't make any sense at all to me to do it any differently!

Speaking of activity, where are all these new grant people? Are they off 
in the weeds messing with obscure modes or micro power CW or are they 
even on the air at all? It boogles my mind to see folks going through 
the effort of applying and paying for the license grant and then not 
getting on the air.

Maybe there is another venue that I am not aware of where announcements 
of activity are being made?

73,

Larry - W7IUV / WH2XGP



On 07-Jul-14 4:14 PM, John Langridge wrote:
> Thanks for the reports and for keeping your stuff running Larry.
>
> <Seems like there was little activity over the holiday weekend.
>
> from my perspective, there was quite a bit of activity this past weekend but perhaps that's the benefit of living in the middle of the country.  Seemed like Friday night had a huge number of  stations on WSPR in NA.. This coincided with good CW activity between here in NTX and WPA.  Saturday was noisier and while XJM got his reports from me, I was not hearing him consistently enough.  My RX antennas are down at the moment as I am doing a rework with them so it was a deficiency on my end and noise level was up.  Surprisingly, the vertical has been nice to listen to even now, so long as there are no local storms causing static spikes...a stable, however elevated, noise level has just not been a real problem thus far here.  If there was a night that was a bust of the 3, last night was it.  Still pretty good but a wider distribution of noise makers around the country...It kinda looks like it might be like that tonight too, but we will have to see
 what
>   happens after dark I suppose.
>
> If things shape up and I can stay awake, I will call CQ in CW at 474.5 around 0400z tonight for a bit and see what shakes out.  will have to see what WSPR suggests about conditions earlier in the evening.  I think we have gained 15 seconds of darkness since the solstice... small gains are better than none...HI
>
>
> 73,
>
> John XIQ
>
>
> ________________________________
>   From: Larry <larry at w7iuv.com>
> To: 600 MRG <600MRG at w7ekb.com>
> Sent: Monday, July 7, 2014 10:25 AM
> Subject: [600MRG] WH2XGP update
>
>
> The station has been running WSPR continuously since the A/C incident.
> However yesterday evening I lost Internet access, and therefor WSPRnet
> access, from afternoon until early this morning.
>
> The only station heard last night was WG2XIQ a number of times.
>
> Seems like there was little activity over the holiday weekend.
>
> 73,
>
> Larry - W7IUV / WH2XGP
> DN07dg - central WA
> http://w7iuv.com
>
>
>
>
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