Re Cans and KPH (was something else unrelated)

[k6dgw]

There was a typo in my KSM/KPH post:  My brain knew that they activate
the station on Sunday, but my fingers ran amok and typed Saturday.

Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

 > Fred wrote:
 > K6KPH DE <yourcall> QLB KSM 6474 QSA 5/KPH 426 QSA 4 K
 >
 > Fred, you are sounding like a Ham contester!!


I am a contester.  Not a good one, but I'm about to enter the JIDX a
bit.  Lotsa QSL cards to follow in about a year and a half.

QSA is also the origin of the phrase, often heard on 75 in the evening
from some of the older hams, "Roger Tom, you're Q5 tonight."

Officially, QLB means, "I have monitored <station> (on <xxxx> Kcs) and
report as follows <brief report>."  Nearly all Q-signals are a
question-answer pair.  QRX as a question means, "Will you call me
again?"  As a statement it means, "I will call you again at <time[GMT]>
on <xxxx> Kcs."  We hams have verb-ified, adjective-ified, and
noun-ified many of them.  QRP as a question means, "Shall I decrease
power."  As an answer, it means, "Decrease power."  However, we readily
tell someone that "My KX1 is a QRP rig."  There is an amusing note for
QRP (and QRO) that cautions "Refers to communications," as opposed, I
guess, to the throttle on the airplane (I think I know the class of
pilots who would need that guidance, but to name it would disclose an
unfounded personal bias).  Strictly speaking, Q-signals have no place in
radiotelephone transmissions.

Another commercial practice you can use to confuse and annoy people in
the ham bands is the interrogatory prosign, INT (sent as one letter).
Since the Morse question mark duplicates the prosign IMI (which is used
a lot, especially if you're a member of SOC), you send di di dah dit dah
prior to the Q-signal (or sentence) to make it a question.  You can get
an exhaustive list of all Q-signals at
<www.geocities.com/wa6tbh/qsigs.htm>.  Some are fairly quaint.

I'm about 140 km from KPH, and in the afternoon, it has a huge field
strength here in the Sierra foothills.  However, the LF sensitivity of
all my receivers with that coverage really sucks, the only untuned
antenna I have is my flag pole, so KPH is only about S7 or so on the
meters on 426 KCs.

Ron can probably hear KSM just fine on 6474 Kcs.

Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA CM98lw
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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

Fred wrote:
There was a typo in my KSM/KPH post:  My brain knew that they activate
the station on Sunday, but my fingers ran amok and typed Saturday.

--------------
Hey, how else can you get to use a neat word like "amok". It's as much fun
to say as it is to write...

Oh yeah, even 600 meters comes in from KPH here FB in the evenings, about
600 miles up the coast from their transmitters. For SWL's, the HF/LF bands
are great fun - lots of non-directional beacons all over the country to
'DX', etc., although the transmissions get even more boring that "reading
the mail" on contest exchanges <G>. Folks who can monitor VLF can even get a
chance to listen for Grimedon's huge alternator transmitter from a century
ago - nothing more than a huge AC generator hooked to an antenna working on
17 kHz with a key in the antenna circuit. (That's one you don't want to bump
the contacts on with your hand...) It's in Sweden.

One work the world on 500 kHz even with QRP and a short antenna. I'm aware
of one instance of a hand-cranked lifeboat radio, running a couple of watts
into an electrically short antenna on 500 kHz in the Mediterranean Sea,
being heard half way around the world clearly enough to trigger a search in
the middle of the Pacific ocean.

As we've discussed many times here on the reflector, when using a short
antenna, the ground is EVERYTHING! And sitting in the middle of an ocean
filled with salt water is about as good as a ground can get...

Ron AC7AC


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