Listening to pile-ups but still no contacts

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 Took the radio out today, about lunchtime.



The Sheep says 
"I'm way better operator than half of these Italians"

It was... Interesting. Both of the antennas tuned up nicely on 14MHz first, then I listened to some and tried to respond - no takers. Tried some CQs but got no answers either. I could hear into the US very clearly a couple of mid-west and South Florida stations, and lots of Italians, Slovaks and some Serbs. Also some Arabic stations were very clear but didn't catch their call signs. Some operators are really lousy. Rubbish NATO code usage (Kilowatt is not a part of your call sign morons!), operated on top of others, and didn't play nice during pile-ups. 

Then I wondered around to see if I can get some contacts elsewhere, and found that there was a massive pile-up on a Tasmanian station!


VK7RG was coming out load and clear at 14.213MHz, and a lot of European stations were piling up on him. Especially a TA7 station was being extremely obnoxious, transmitting on top of other stations QSOs, not waiting for the VK7RG to call back. Oh well. 

I did responds a couple of times when he was picking up the next contact, but it'd be definitely impossible for me.

In the end I did put out about 75W SSB, anything higher the radio would get upset. The antennas somehow lost their tuning (I think there's something wrong with the cables) but  they were still around 1.5SWR max. I did try some 144.300MHz SSB calling too but as usual didn't hear anyone.

I had a laptop with me to try some digital modes, but then in the end I gave up and rushed back home around 2PM. It's now past 4PM, so I'll go and check my telescope out instead. The weather really sucks but it's a good time to calibrate the scope and oil the joints and the gears.

Still, not a bad day so far. I'd be happy if I can catch a couple of stations when I'm down in the garage, but the local 2M/70cm situation is dire.

In other news, VX7-R is still AWOL.

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