Would you like some DX with that burger?

7N1PRD's Home Station

I've been enjoying the high bands this weekend and was able to work a fair number of new DX on 10 and 12m this week.  I also began to tune around 15m a fair amount.  I did find that my off center fed doublet was working like a dummy load on that band so I busted into the K2 again and re-wired the balun I have stuck inside.  It was in 4:1 mode but I rewired it for 1:1 in hopes of providing more power to the load.  Unfortunately this means that all bands have to tune harder and on 15m, the best match is about 2.5:1 but as soon as I plugged the antenna in and retuned the tuner, I heard 7N1PRD/0 in Nagano, Japan calling CQ to a quiet band.  This was a huge surprise to me - the first time I have even heard Japan since I was operating back home in high school at the end of the last solar cycle some 6 or 7 years ago.  So I made a careful zero-beat on him, gave him a call and sure enough, he could hear my 5w, though he only gave me a 119...worst signal report I've ever received but it came with a LoTW confirmation so I guess it counts!

In other, less exciting news, I visited the other Radio Shack in town to pick up some more of those stick on feet I mentioned last week and cleaned this one out too.  It sounds like the 2 stores in my town only stock 2 sets of the feet at a time so keep that in mind if you go out to find some in case your stores do the same.

My wife and I drove by the new house today and it looked like the owners were packing up; we could see boxes in the garage and they had their tool box in the driveway.  We're only 18 days away from the move!  We're getting so very excited.

That is all for now, we'll see ya next week!