12m Opens!

After what seems like a very long summer absence, 12m came back to life in no uncertain terms last evening - although few have realised it yet.


Just after 17:00UT, a strong signal came across on JT65A at 24.917.  Turned out to be WA6JBZ, hitting my 3 ele LFA Yagi at -01dB.  Given that he was using 25W into a G5RV, the band was certainly very open! 

A few minutes later, I caught a ZF1 and a VE6, both good signals.

12m, now open.

So, it's certainly looking like good autumn conditions on 12m at last.  Now all we need is some more operators to come on board!

Once again, the futility of signal reports was demonstrated in the report I received from WA6, which was 9dB weaker than that handed out to a G5RV operator.  Some might rush to say something's wrong with my antenna.  In fact, it's a phenomenon repeated daily, often when I'm the only station folk can hear, especially in the well-populated US.  It's a product of little gain and, often, poor antenna environments on the receiving, and not the transmitting side.