August 19, 2025 20 meter SSB in the afternoon. Mike KX4WC/Aeronautical Mobile was enroute to San Juan from Miami, flying through the edges of Hurricane Erin. Also in the QSO was John VY2WW and Mike WA3O. WA3O is a long-time listener to SolderSmoke. He has a water-cooled amplifier and he sent me his Heathkit HW-7 (which I still have).
Mike and I could hear each other through most of his flight. We were both especially strong when he reached his closest point to my location. At this point he was about 50 miles over my north-east horizon:
Amazingly, this was NOT my first contact from the DR with KX4WC/AM. In January 2020 (just beore the pandemic) I was in Samana, and, early one morning Mike flew over the Dominican Republic. Here is an e-mail that I sent yesterday to all three guys who were in this very memorable QSO:
I really liked today's QSO. Mike called me from around 50 miles out. We were both very strong.
The first link describes in detail my 2020 QSO with Mike from Samana, DR. The second describes my Samana station.
and
Here is my current station:
And wow! WA3O Who could forget that water-cooled amplifier!? And I still have his HW-7 Thanks Mike.
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This is cool! Did the storm effect propagation at all?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. Storms are low, the ionosphere is high! 73 Bill
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