[600MRG] Please consider getting active on 630m in 2015!

[John Langridge]

There have been a lot of grants awarded in the last year or so...  Activity has been pretty good in spite of the poor-ish condx that we have seen this winter.  There is always room for more and this "630m thing" has always been about what we, the operators (both RX AND TX!), make of it.

If you have a grant and have not been active or have not been on the air yet at all, consider what you might do to make that happen in 2015.  If you are having problems getting things going, there are so many resources and on-air experience within this group to help you make that happen.  You just have to ask.

One of my radio resolutions for 2015 is to lose a little more sleep and make a few  more QSO's.  Compared to my previous two years on 630m, I have been a less active operator, relying more on WSPR reports and the wow factor and marketing potential that is generated for would-be new applicants and potential operators.  I've blamed perceived propagation for the most part but I think having enough guys on the air to populate the band can make some of those perceptions disappear.  Its been very cool to listen to the EU guys (via  http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ ) making random CW QSO's (not skeds - literally random Q's) during their evening.  Also the special event we did in late October / early November was awesome and condx were even pretty good (funny how condx seem to be pretty good when we get on!).  There is plenty of great potential out there if ops will take advantage.


My hope would also be that a few of the former stalwarts from the experimental group would figure out how to get active again.  Its great to have XSH/15 QRV again!  We have holes from the gulf coast and rio grand all the way to the canadian border in the central part of the country...If you can get on or want to file for your own grant, please give it some serious thought!  We also have holes in the south east.  Surprisingly the west and southwest have had very healthy growth and there is always room for more...


73 and happy new year,

John KB5NJD / WG2XIQ