I heard some 10M beacons and decided to listen to 12M for SSB. I heard some CW on 24.900 and tuned around and heard K4VSV Bill in Rock Hill, South Carolina calling CQ on 24945 at 1910Z. He heard me at 10W with the K2, but I turned on the K5OOR HFPacker amplifier to get it up to 25W or so to make it more comfortable. Bill said my audio was OK and had punch with my 3:1 compression, so I guess it works. I told Bill he was my second K2 SSB contact, the first being France. Bill also does QRP sometimes with his Icom 703 but was running about 95W on the peaks today into a homebrew log periodic! He'd heard some Europeans earlier, but I was the only signal on the band for him then. QSB took over when we said 73.

K0FPL Frank in Kansas City, KS then called me around 1915Z and asked me to QSY up 5. Frank said I was S2 with good audio, and he was S5 to S8, running 400W into a Vee Beam over 400 feet on a side, but pointed at Europe. Frank congratulated me on the K2 and said he would be my 3rd SSB contact on it!

- posted by Leigh @ 19:41 z