[600MRG] Last night at WD2XSH/20

[Rudy Severns]

Thanks everyone for the reports.  Getting into ME is a real surprise!!  My 
ground conductivity is way down this time of year so I would have thought my 
signal would be down since I'm not running any more power than usual.  This 
morning I had to dig a deep hole for the base of my 160m vertical and found 
the soil bone dry and hard as concrete two feet or more down!  I'm making 
progress here on HF antennas so have had some time to get back on MF.  Will 
try to be on most nights.

The WSPR tests have shown the band has possibilities we never suspected, or 
at least I never expected.  Summer propagation may be very up and down but 
it's far from dead.  This winter I'll want to work hard on CW QSO's.  I wish 
the XSH license would allow JT9 and JT65 but it doesn't.  I think these 
would be very interesting.  Even though I can't transmit these modes I 
certainly can listen, decode and report so I hope you guys will give those 
modes a shot.  I tuned in to Ralph's (XSH/7) PSK signal often but I found 
that when I could just begin to get a reasonable decode I could also copy 
his CW ID as well or better.  I think PSK doesn't have any special advantage 
for us.  JT9 however, should be very useful.  I don't need to talk fast!

73, Rudy