Well, now that we have Hamfest behind us we can relax a bit. Next thing up is Field Day, coming up the last weekend in June. This year, as in the last few years, we will operating out of the Palm Sprigs EOC. Some clubs just set up a tent in the sun, some head up to the mountains. Considering how warm the year has started off, I think we will be glad to have some AC. Anyway, we will start looking for volunteers to get some food together for the event and get ops signed up for some time slots.
As we sink deeper into the lows of this sun spot cycle, I wonder what the summer will bring. Usually the higher bands will always have some activity. But even when they are dead on the SSB section of 20M there is lots of traffic on other modes. Try looking into the digital modes. PSK, RTTY and JT65/JT9. All it takes is a interface between your rig and your computer and some free software. I use FLDigi (www.w1hkj.com) and (https://sourceforge.net/projects/jt65-hf/) and a SignaLink (www.tigertronics.com/ . In the mornings, using JT65 on 40M, there is hardly room to get on. Lots of traffic from Asia, from Korea to Australia. In the afternoon, on 20M is the same but it’s Europe and Africa coming in. Most DXpeditions, if they run digital, use RTTY. I’ve worked some good DX in the last few weeks using RTTY. Give some of these a try.
See ya on the bands
Glenn WB6RLC
