[RMVHF] Greetings from Montana!

[LANCE COLLISTER]

Hello Ken,

Nice to hear from you!  I seem to recall that WA1JXN guy from many years ago ;-) 
Actually, I operated as WA1JXN from this QTH in Montana from 1979 to 1996, when 
the FCC again opened up the vanity licensing program.  After almost 2 decades of 
signing "WA1JXN/7" during EME contests had just about worn me out, and I decided 
it was about time to get a more manageable W7 call, since I had no plans to ever 
move back to New England anyway ;-)

It is very interesting that you mention a meteor scatter contact. I can't remember 
for sure whether I had 8 yagis or 12 yagis at that time.  I think I did not go to 
16 yagis until 1983 or 1984, so that helped us for sure.  I have never had any 
other 2m antenna at this location, and my experiences with meteor scatter from 
here have been dismal.  It seems that the large EME array is just too sharp to 
catch enough meteors.  I tried running many hours of skeds during the Perseids but 
always seems to get skunked...I always seemed to better on random contacts.  And I 
suppose that is where we hooked up.  I am happy to hear you have expanded your 2m 
station.

About the time I changed my callsign, I also got involved with 6m.  I had always 
stayed away from that band because of fear of RFI/TVI.  And when I got on, I did 
find that I had a few problems in the neighborhood when I was on 6m.  But they 
quickly disappeared as more people wound up getting satellite TV systems and 
upgraded their old 49 MHz portable phones for the cheaper and better 900 MHz (and 
now higher) portable phones.  There sure were a lot of advances in consumer 
technology in the mid 1990's that made my entry to 6m very propitious!  6m is now 
mostly where I spend my time.

Since that time I also have noticed how frequently (at least on 6m) there appear 
to be signals.  Certainly, D layer scatter is a very reliable propagation mode 
between large stations that are between 700 and 1300 miles apart.  And of course, 
the frequency of propagation by random meteors on 6m is much higher than on 2m. 
However, there are lots of other things around to bounce signals off of on either 
6m or 2m.

Because I am blocked to the north by a 3000' wall of rock, I never was able to 
work Alberta from here - not even on aurora.  But I did set up a sked with someone 
  at about the time I figured a large NWA transcontinental flight from Seattle 
would be about midpath, and we ran a sked.  We worked like clockwork ;-)  I think 
it was only in for a few minutes, but it was pretty memorable ;-)

And then on 6m, I was surprised to chat with a QRP station in Helena (only about 
120 miles away from here, but on the other side of the continental divide) which 
GREAT signals for about 5 minutes.  I checked afterward, and it was just when the 
International Space Station went over.

During the last solar cycle peak, I was really watching the ISS orbits to see if 
there was any way I could use it to link down to the propagation, which always 
seemed to be south of here.  One time, the ISS was passing over southern 
California (about 1500 miles from here), which provided a bounce for me about 3000 
miles to the southwest from here (about the maximum "footprint" afforded by the 
ISS).  For about 5 to 10 seconds, 50.110 sounded like the low end of 20m here! 
WOW - I have never imagined such activity (and have never heard anything like that 
since then).  Too bad the ISS moves so fast!  But for CLOSER contacts (like my 
contact with Helena), it was there for MINUTES, and signals were very very strong.

And then another time, W7HAH here in Montana worked some VK stations on 6m by 
aiming northeast at an aurora.  I am pretty well blocked that direction, so I 
don't think I heard the VK stations myself.  But it sure was interesting to see 
the aurora backscatter the very high altitude F2 signals back down to earth to 
provide some contacts when the MUF out off the coast of California was not high 
enough to bend 50 MHz signals back down to earth.  We certainly can stand some of 
those unusual helpful reflectors from time to time ;-)

But I digress...my point was simply that there are numerous unusual things to 
create propagation on the VHF bands ;-)

GL and VY 73, Lance






it was a long time  Ken Anderson wrote:
> Hi Lance, W7GJ (ex WA1JXN/7):
> 
> You mention the 704 mi distance to the Denver area from your QTH for 
> which there is no usual terrestrial path.  I'm sure you are right but 
> one unusual meteor scatter QSO I had on August 12, 1982 (probably the 
> Perseids) was with WA1JXN/7 when you worked 4 Denver area stations.  I 
> worked you with a 10w ssb rig and a 7 el antenna and have appreciated 
> your QSL in my file for years.  The ms contact spurred me to get onto 2m 
> ssb in a bigger way with 100w and a 17 el m2 at 80 ft.   It was a fun 
> QSO and I will always remember it.
> 
> I hope you've signed on to the RMVHF reflector.
> 
> 73 Ken, W0ETT
> Parker, CO DM79
> 
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     From: k7tnt at bresnan.net
>     To: rmvhf at rmvhf.org
>     Subject: Re: [RMVHF] Greetings from Montana!
>     Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:42:46 -0700
> 
>     Lance, sometime look for the K7KMT/b just West of Gillette,WY on 2m.
>     144.298 in DN64 Good luck. Richard K7TNT DN74
> 
>         

-- 
Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex: WN3GPL, WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8)
P.O. Box 73
Frenchtown, MT  59834  USA
QTH: DN27UB
TEL: (406) 626-5728   URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj
2m DXCC #11, 6m DXCC #815

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