The net lives! Quite often it turns out to be just me and John VA3JI rag chewing for an hour, but sometimes Bill VE3AAA checks in or we hear from VE3IBW or various other members less frequently.
In the last few days John put up a beam antenna for 6m and his signals jumped about 4 S-Units (so did mine at his end). Also in the last month I put up a home made delta loop antenna based on a design by GW7AAV which is about 1.1:1 VSWR and works quite well considering the top is at about 15' AGL. The antenna will only 'take' about 200W. My theory is that the connection points for the 10GA wire I used for the loop are too close together. When I get a chance I will take it down, drill new holes and space them wider. As a modification to the GW7AAV I put end caps on the PVC pipe on which the matching section (RG-11) is wound, and put a SO-239 on the bottom end and a pair of connecting bolts on the other.
About 1/2 way through our QSO John thought he heard a faint CW signal but we didn't hear it again. As we were signing off, though, we were called by Mike, KM4ID, near Charleston South Carolina. He gave John an S9 and me and S5 (I was running 100W). VE3AAA also heard him from Mt. Albert, and we chatted briefly before calling it a night. Bill commented that he could hear Mike in South Carolina better than he could hear me.
After that QSO I flipped over to JT65 on 50.277 and called CQ and was answered by a station in North Carolina, then another in Georgia. The North Carolina station started out at -01db S/N, then on the next transmission was -03, then on the final transmission was -18. I finished the night by answering the CQ of another Georgia station.
This is by no means the first 6m opening I've experienced, but it is the first one on a Monday night net. It's something I'd always hoped would happen.
Come join us some time. All are welcome!
73,
Chris
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