On this page you will find some info about the small trip with LA7G/p. It was in late july 2000 when LA2PJ contacted my via e-mail. He was wondering if I wanted to join them. Sure I thought, this would be fun, hopefully with good radio conditions.
I came up on friday afternoon. There I met LC8EAT, LC3EAT, LC4ZAT and LC2XAT. LC2XAT had been there for a while, carrying some of his equipment up to the cabin. We started to carry up rest of the stuff, and even though it was only for a weekend, we did bring a lot of stuff. A few hours later, LA2PJ showed up with his gear. In the meanwhile, the antennas had been set up.
We set up 2 operating positions, one for 2M/HF and the second for 6M. I brought my 2M all-mode, my keyer and my dsp. We also had an IC-706, a DX-70th and a TS-60, ready for operating.
During the evening LA7THA came to visit. Since no 6M conditions were noticed that day, we had a great time barbequing and talking. We went to bed pretty late, and didn't fall asleep until about 0400 am. Just ask LA2PJ :)
Saturday morning I got up at 0750, just in time to get ready for our skeds with SM7AED and SM7FJE. The equipment was ok, and I just turned the quad. At exactly 0800 (0600z) I heard SM7AED starting his transmission. I was kinda surprised, cause the signals were audible all the time, but not readable. I just needed a little QSB up in the signals to copy. Combined with the noise canceller in my w9gr dsp, and headphones, I finished the first sked in 16 minutes. During the first sked, the signals were so good that I unplugged the headphones, and woke up LA2PJ. (He thought I had forgotten the sked :) SM7FJE started his transmission after SM7AED. He was just a fraction stronger, and I was breaking every 15 secs, thanks to this we completed the sked 0821 (0621z). Our first 2 qso'es, and it was so easy....
By now the rest of the gang was up. The quad was turned south, and the radio was put on scanning. A few hours later, an OK-stations popped up on sporadic-e. He was the only station worked on ES. We also got a call from LA5QFA telling us that we had aurora. We worked him easy, and started calling cq. LA6QBA was the next guy in the log. I still called cq, now beaming northwest, suddenly an ES2? station called in with t9 sigs. Unfortunately I could not get his call, and he dissappeared. I still wonder who it was...
LA5QFA called us just to tell us that he had worked ZS on 6M, holding his phone next to the speaker, just to let us hear what we were missing. But we got our revenge......
A few hours later, we heard OZ2LD calling cq dx on 50125. This was via aurora, but we couldn't attract his attention. I guess he was beaming south working some nice dx we could only dream about. Suddenly OZ5IQ was calling cq dx on cw with pure tone. I tried to get his attention as well, but no luck here either. The rest of the evening, the radio was put on scanning.
Later that day LA6EIA, LA3TR, LA6MO and LB1HC came to visit. By now, we were 11 radio amateurs gathered. Since we had very little 6M propagation, we also checked HF, which resulted in five of us working FR/F6KDF/T on 12M SSB with a butternut. The rest of the day we were talking, barbecuing and having fun.
Sunday, we were planning a little scam to get our revenge on LA5QFA, but decided we weren't that mean. So I started to pack some of my stuff. As I was doing this, I heard LA2PJ talking to someone on the phone. I realised it was LA5QFA again, so I plugged my minidisc recorder into the speaker and started playing my JX7DFA beacon recording. I also turned up the volume on the 6m radio to get a little noise at the same time. LA2PJ took the hint, and put his phone next to the speaker. Since LA5QFA hadn't worked JX, we could hear him running to his shack, quickly turning his antenna. He couldn't hear a thing, so he started checking his equipment. LA2PJ couldn't hold his laugh anymore, and told Jan we were joking.........
Around noon we took down the antennas, and packed our stuff in 5 minute peroids. The weather had turned bad. It rained for 5 minutes, stopped for 5 minutes, on and off for a while. Anyway, we packed the stuff, and left for home. It was a nice trip, now if only the conditions had been better....