[600MRG] 630m report tuesday night/wednesday morning

[John Langridge]

Band started out really nice, with early WSPR2 spots from Pat /6 for both my station and XXM.  That was odd because it was still well before dark here in NTX.

Through the evening S/N was improving at a remarkable rate, to the point where XJM was reporting single digit S/N well before 0400z when that might normally be seen this time of year.  I was talking to TTS Mike in the ON4KST logger and had hoped XJM would see us so we could jump over for a CW QSO but I figured he was working on a project and knew he would text me if he got free so I packed it in for the night with the intention of being up at 0900z to call CQ and check things out.

Alarm goes off at 0900z and I make my way into the shack.  I see Eric has been replying in the logger an hour earlier.  I started looking at the WSPR numbers and it was pretty apparent that I might have missed the boat.. back into the -18 to -22 range.. good enough for something slow and digital but not going to happen with QRQ CW this morning.  I head back to bed.

I was not in bed 5 minutes before I receive a text from Eric that says "cw NOW" HI.. I jump up and get things reconfigured and its a tough go.. in 2 minutes, the band has shifted again.  we all each other a bit and then decide in the logger to try JT9...make that QSO and in the process see the band is improving again for normal CW so we jump back over there and log a very fast CW Q..low noise and in the clear and then we are gone... band was very unstable but very serviceable if you were willing to pick and choose your battles.  


So it was worth losing a little sleep... Thanks again to Eric for the Q and for getting me back in the shack after I headed back to bed.. definitely worth it.

The band has been absolutely remarkable this summer and I cannot wait to see what happens this winter...Its gonna be a show...

73,

John XIQ