YS1G are now QRT and despite listening in (on CW) for lengthy periods last night on several bands I didn’t hear a peep out of them. Early this morning they were working 40m SSB into Europe (by numbers) and again, I was not able to hear them.
For now I can only hope for better propagation as cycle 24 picks up over the next few years because on this occasion, given my limited setup this end, it seems I was probably being somewhat over optimistic.
Dean Amateur Radio propagation, YS1G
Surprise, surprise. Tonight on 17m (18.141 MHz) YS1G work a clutch of mostly NA stations simplex SSB. Those EU stations who did work them (no doubt with far better antennas than I have here) were reporting them ‘weak but workable’.
A welcome break form long hours of CW or just looking to chat a bit before they settle in for another long day at the key/paddle? Whatever their thinking they were inaudible here which is in line with every other day this week when they only really start to peak into Europe on 17m after 11pm my time.
Dean Amateur Radio, Life... dxpedition, SSB, YS1G
Michael (G7VJR) and Bob (MD0CCE) are doing their bit keeping YS1G on the air day & night but still conditions aren’t quite good enough to allow me to hear them consistently.
Tonight on 20m they were fading badly and only very occasionally coming up to max strength 5 or 6. Add to that the fact my wire sloper antenna is proving to be difficult to tune on 20m meaning I can only run up to 35w output before RF in the shack wreaks havoc and it’s been a frustrating night.
I’m tired and off to bed. I may try again tomorrow or Friday night but it’s not looking very promising.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, YS1G
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was hoping to work YS1G on CW (morse code) this week for an all time new one in the form of El Salvador. It’s looking very much like that will be a lot more difficult than I expected.
I have so far heard them on 17m late into my evening and on 40m early my morning. I’ve not yet heard them fully readable and there is deep fading on their signal. At best they are peaking 475 on my random wire antenna but only for a few seconds at a time. Most of the time they are inaudible down in the noise.
I will listen in a few more late evenings in the hope propagation peaks on one of those nights. Early mornings are more difficult but I might get one last chance early morning on Saturday the 23rd when they report that they will be on air ‘early GMT’ before packing up to head back to the UK.
I’ll keep fingers crossed but for now my expectations are revised to a ‘nice if it happens’ rather than the ‘expecting to work them’ of previous weeks.
Dean Amateur Radio, Life... antenna, morse code, propagation, YS1G