I heard 9V1XQ this evening (Jan. 11) at 2230Z on 1825.8
coming through on long path. Signals peaked 569 on
the southeast Beverage, and were not audible from
any other direction. However, as soon as I started
to call him, the transmit SWR suddenly jumped way
upscale and the transmit antenna went dead!! After
some running around outside in the dark in frigid
temperatures to check the antennas, I eventually
determined a relay had gone bad. Needless to say,
no QSO was made. Thank you OM Murphy!!
It's worth noting that a tipoff to the excellent
propagation was the Singapore beacon which was
pounding through on 3915 kHz. This beacon has
consistently proved to be a reliable indicator
of long path conditions to southeast Asia on the
low bands.
73, John W1FV
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