A dead band.
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| The aurora, seen from north Wales in February 2014. Image (C) this blog. |
Then a GI station called me. Even for a backscatter signal, he had a remarkable flutter on the audio that strongly suggested auroral conditions.
I had a look at the NOAA SWPC website and...WOAH! A G4 storm was underway. It's a long time since I saw one of those.
Curious, I turned the 12m beam northwards, but to no avail.
I rushed outside, swung the 6m 2-ele quad at the north pole, and there was Steve, GM1DSK, coming in like a drunk Dalek (that's a comment on the peculiar auroral audio, not Steven himself!)
I gave Steve, who I'd last spoken to on 12m backscatter a call, and he came back with a strong 'Roger' straight away. Wow! My first auroral QSO.
Here's Steve talking to someone in England:
http://freemp3hosting.com/RjM
From then on, conditions improved a fair bit, with some well-equipped stations making my efforts a little easier to hear. Just a 2 ele quad on 80W PEP and now I have several auroral QSOs, including one back to F6.
That's a memorable day in amateur radio, for sure!
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