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Author Topic: Have you any 30m stories to share???  (Read 2744 times)

Offline G0BVZ

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Have you any 30m stories to share???
« on: February 07, 2014, 10:03:41 UTC »
After messing around with a soldering iron for a while, around 23.00UTC yesterday, I decided on a late night bands tour before bed.

Things were fairly quiet until I hit 30m; at the lower end of the band there were two areas of intense activity, one on 10.06, the other around 10.120. As the sigs swelled on a very slow qsb the callsigns ranged from K8, DL, OE, R...  lots of them. It was a contest, numbers were being exchanged, matey 'GL's were bouncing around, the whole bit.

Bushed, I boogied off off to make a hot drink for the XYL & myself. Still curious about 30m condx, I went back to the shack for a final listen half an hour later. All was quiet. I tuned around a little; either the world's deepest QSB was at a minimum or the band had finally died.

I was surprised by this late night bubble of activity on 30m, I really didn't expect it. Tucked between 20m and 40m, the band definitely has its quirks. Could be my antenna system is junk and all the rest of you hear stuff like this all the time. Do you??  Are there any 30m stories out there?

Vic /curious Ship's Cat

Offline sm5mek

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Re: Have you any 30m stories to share???
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2014, 10:53:02 UTC »
Sad to hear it was an contest on 30m, as most of us know contests on WARK - bands ar not by the rules. The rules are there by some reason. Are you sure it was,nt  any sota or wwff activity? In this moment a digital station on 18096, why not using the fq for digital traffic.  GRRrrr morrr.  :(
Best regards, 72 de SM5MEK, Jenny.

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Have you any 30m stories to share???
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2014, 13:07:54 UTC »
Contest it was Jenny.  I did hear contest before on 30m: I grouched about it here. I don't understand it. Surely the contest organisers disallow contacts on 30m so why do contestants bother?  I never respond myself. I said it before. Once contest is heard on 30m others will follow... >:(

An hour ago I heard ssb on 28.086MHz.  Now there is a 599 +10 Belarus station calling CQ there: much better!!  Should keep intruders at bay.  ;D

Vic

DF5WW

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Re: Have you any 30m stories to share???
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2014, 13:10:27 UTC »
Hi Vic,

are you shure it was a contest ???  Maybe there was an exchange of Club numbers like the 30mdg, FOC or others. There could be an "activity day / or evenig" for a group but contests are forbidden at WARC and in Germany at 6m too.

But b.t.w. 30 is a famous band. My first ZL after my comeback in 2008 i worked on 30m in PSK31 with 3 watts and an indoor doublet. SOme other DX´s are in the log now. 96 confirmed by LotW bute worked around 120 or so. I love 30 when the condx for the higher (10 & 12) are not so fine.

Meanwhile i stopped all digital work and back on CW, maybe we hear us at 30m  ;) :D

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Have you any 30m stories to share???
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2014, 13:47:52 UTC »
Hi Juergen,
FOC activities have stuff like "CQ FOC" but I didn't hear that.  Jenny and you may be right that it was an innocent 'event' but I can't say now. Sure sounded like a contest.....

My main point in posting was how nice it was to hear late activity when I thought band would be closed.

You stop digi? I am interested in why: would you say?

I am pretty deaf.  I thought to get experience of digi in case one day I an completely deaf. I have done a little but it isn't so 'human' as cw and not so rewarding. Computers are not mensch and use of macros makes nearly every qso into a rubberstamp. PSK is marvellous in the sense that it is resistant to QRM and so on but straight key it ain't and sometimes it isn't very exciting.

CW is the Gold Standard!!

I wonder if we agree?

Vic

DF5WW

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Re: Have you any 30m stories to share???
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2014, 18:02:17 UTC »
Hi Vic,

CW isn´t the "gold standard" but it´s a mode where you can work all DXCC´s ..... After my comeback i started with PSK modes. For QRP´ers a good start, but if you see the Logs the white fields (DXCC) are big. No DXpedition use PSK or other Digitals (eccept RTTY) and that´s the reason that i´m back to the roots.

Will back to the digitals if i´m deaf and not blind. If blind and not deaf i will stay on CW. If bind and deaf ... i don´t know  ;D ;)

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Have you any 30m stories to share???
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2014, 20:22:10 UTC »
Hi Vic,

CW isn´t the "gold standard" but it´s a mode where you can work all DXCC´s ..... After my comeback i started with PSK modes. For QRP´ers a good start, but if you see the Logs the white fields (DXCC) are big. No DXpedition use PSK or other Digitals (eccept RTTY) and that´s the reason that i´m back to the roots.

Will back to the digitals if i´m deaf and not blind. If blind and not deaf i will stay on CW. If bind and deaf ... i don´t know  ;D ;)

I accept my correction, Juergen: I expressed myself badly. For me, in the moment, it's like this:-

Digi is a little too impersonal,  ssb is OK because at least the human touch is there but CW can be very exciting. There, maybe I said it better this time. :D

Why I get excited in communicating by knocking two pieces of metal together I don't know. Maybe because there is an element of skill, an element of uncertainty too.  Exercising a skill is pleasurable: CW tickles my neurons so maybe it is a little addictive. Am I an adrenaline junkie?

Reading fast morse is no problem for me. 30, 40, 50 words per minute does not worry me one little bit.  I know I can't read morse at those speeds so I don't worry about them -no problem!!  ;D Once I could 'hear' morse as whole words but not so much now I'm older, slower and kinda deaf so I go at my own speed.

Years of striking a makiwara board gave me hands which are not so dexterous; fine control is a challenge so my straight key work is definitely QLF but I still love morse despite everything.

DXCC? I don''t worry about it. Maybe a new country every month or so would be nice but for me not terribly important.  Meeting new people, that's important for me.  Still, I've had my rest now while writing this so now I will get back to rewiring my shack so it doesn't look so much like a rat's nest of wires!!  ;D

Vic

VE2TH

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Re: Have you any 30m stories to share???
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2014, 01:06:13 UTC »
Hello all,

Sure I have some good stories to share with you, (more on this later)

But I want to share this link with all of you, sure you will like it, because it is full of informations, links, ETC, it is a PDF format, (38 PAGES)  very well done, and you should keep this one handy for any future references.

                                        "30 METER DIGITAL GROUP"


http://30mdg.net/files/30%20Meter%20Band%20INFORMATION%5B1%5D.pdf

Good reading,

72, Michel

Offline G0BVZ

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Re: Have you any 30m stories to share???
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2014, 02:31:09 UTC »
Hello all,

Sure I have some good stories to share with you, (more on this later)

But I want to share this link with all of you, sure you will like it, because it is full of informations, links, ETC, it is a PDF format, (38 PAGES)  very well done, and you should keep this one handy for any future references.

                                        "30 METER DIGITAL GROUP"


http://30mdg.net/files/30%20Meter%20Band%20INFORMATION%5B1%5D.pdf

Good reading,

72, Michel


Qu'as-tu fait, Michel? I tried to read it quickly, now my head is spinning!! Much infos here, I take a little at a time...   ;D

Time to sleep,

Vic /Oiche mhaith.... ZZzzzzzzzzz