March 2023 was an interesting month. It reminded me of March 1979, when first 6 metre amateur signals were heard. After many times trying, I was amazed to hear the ZS6PW beacon on the 12th of March.
The station consisted of an indoor dipole on the attic, connected to a converter from 50 to 14 MHz, using a home made 80/20 transceiver.
There was always a small UHER tape recorder standby, so one of the first things I did was to press the record buttons.
At the time, there was nearly no man made noise, just the odd spikes from electrical on/off switches and cars passing by. Imagine how good the signal would have been with a better antenna on the roof…
During a part of the month, I was in France. The home station can be remotely operated, which enabled me to compare reception. The French location is about 360 km closer to the equator and the difference surprised me. The noise level at home is a lot higher due to man made noise. I measured the difference to be around 15 to 20 dB. It is comparing apples and oranges, but it was clear that openings did not extend to the north in a number of cases.
On March 31, 3C3CA was strong in France and this time, the opening extended and 3C3CA was seen at home and a QSO was made for a new one. Much appreciated!
An overlay graph of SNR’s at both locations is included on the last page of the F/PA2S report.
The two reports provide summary graphs for DX stations seen. The call signs are printed below the graphs. The 31st was exceptionally good, best DX heard was VP8.
The SNR’s are derived from the ALL.TXT files, using “home made” software to generate the graphs.
202303_PA2S_50MHz_Month_graphs
202303_F_PA2S_50MHz_Month_graphs
More details will follow when time permits.
Comments and suggestions are welcome.