[600MRG] Overnight and week report

[Laurence KL7 L]

Very heavy rain here in South Central Alaska - almost Signapore Monsoon levels - with a few very large flashes and bangs. I took the liberty of disconnecting all the receivers and transmitters for the night. Glad to be home - it was a long week surveying in N Alberta fending off swarms of deer/moose and horse flies.

The WSPR2 Tx on 600m (W1VD 1Kw design but only 2 FETS) ran for a week at 50% tx  unattended at 225W out and the tuning was very close to optimum  on my return to the States - everything was cool to the touch and the phase meter was showing the same reading even though we were soaked

I obviously still have a hole in my vertically radiation pattern out East on the tx array which I dont see on zeero angle ground wave field level measurements, but I do have a load of 4-7 K Ft mountains within a few miles on major route bearings which Im sure is breaking things up at lower angles but my rx ears continue to outshine the tx signal on that bearing -I just have to wait for a multi hop high angle night for dx :-) This isnt the case on my bearing towards VK and ZL which is tantamount to a sea path apart from a few glaciers and moraine; Im sure that path will open this Autumn.

Japan bearing is land/ice/volcano interrupted mostly for the first 500 Miles or more but Japan on LF 137 is commonly decoded here and probably would be on MF given the levels of the MW stations here, stronger than the local Russian ones.

As Sarah Palin didnt famously say " we can see Russia" - and yes we are closer to Anadyr Russia than Seattle  :-)

Plans are for a second TX loop or maybe a dipole type array - Marconi just dont work in my forested location here.

Decoded this week were XIQ XGP XSH/20 and VE7BDQ - apologies if Ive missed anyone - best dx to XIQ at around 3000 miles or so on WSPR2, conditions were generally poorer this week up here.

Laurence WE2XPQ Wasilla Palmer Alaska
KL7L