[600MRG] last night at XSH/20

[Rudy Severns]

Conditions last night were not exactly stellar but with effort I managed 
four QSO's:  WG2XSV, WH2XGP,  WG2XJM and WG2XIQ.  XSV and XGP are basically 
locals with big signals but the QSO's with Eric and John were tough and 
fleeting but despite the conditions we did it.  Think of the fun we can have 
on a good night!

After much fooling around it finally dawned on me to use my waterfall 
between my beacon transmissions to watch for call backs.  That worked very 
well with Eric.  The QSB was really severe so he waited until my beacon 
signal peaked and then called me.  I came right back and we had a quickie 
before the signals went back into the mud.  Not too bad, transcontinental on 
a poor night with low power!  Today I'm going to reprogram my keyer to have 
longer intervals between transmissions and I'll be much more watchful during 
the breaks, both listening and watching the waterfall.

I copied Mike's (XSH/12) beacon quite well on the QSB peaks, zilch during 
the lows.  VE7BDQ and VE7SL were in there also with good signals while they 
worked crossband.

Tonight I'll be on again.  My thanks to you night owls in the Midwest and 
east coast for staying up late while I whined about having to stay up until 
11PM.

73, Rudy