I set up my Pac-12 antenna at the local school athletic ground about a block from my house, and tuned It to 14.070 with my 4SQRP Tenna Dipper. Right away I picked up a lot of CW and PSK activity on 20m. But I had no output power, and thought perhaps I had blown my finals in the FT-817, but the mic worked fine up on the HFPack calling frequency (no answer). So I checked my Buxcomm interface and found a mechanical problem with the transmit level adjust pot, which had always been flakey.

I called CQ a few times but no answer, so I tried answering WA5EOG (EM34) and he came back first time, but gave me a 349. I have not finished the 2nd power cable for my PSKMeter so I was being too conservative in modulation. I upped the modulation a bit and got a 579, to his 589. I was probably running 1.5W before and 2.5-5W after. 1600 miles isn't bad for 1.5W for getting through and a few watts for a QSO.

Ken's wife is also a ham and she looked up my QRZ page while I was talking to him, hi hi.

- posted by Leigh @ 04:49 z