On Saturday April 18th, an immense Solar Coronal hole was pointed directly at earth. HF Conditions Suffered. Members still got out the weather being genuinely fine. Here are their briefings
N6BLU: The absolute toughest conditions were had at the beginning of the clubs POTA today. Never has it taken so long to get that first contact….almost two hours. When it was all said and done it did pickup but then slowed again. I gave it about 4 and half hours but managed 48 contacts with 26 park to parks from US 2816(Bullards Beach SP) and US 10007(Oregon Coast Trail). Used my EFHW and my JPC-12 Vertical on 20 and 40 meters.
K6GUK: North Spit BLM at the boat ramp area. This area had a little grassy area with two picnic tables. It was breezy. Ended up using the tactical delta loop with FT 710 at 100watts. Getting into the club repeater was a hit and miss. I was cross banding from my HT into my car mobile I had a little bit better luck it sounds like the most started on 17 and then moved to 20 and played a little bit on 40 ended up with a total of 79 contacts, with some going to Delaware and Massachusetts in North Carolina the South was pretty open in Texas, Tennessee, and New Mexico. I probably had 4 or 5 contacts that was under a 51. Zach showed up and got an additional I think 12. I did stay for the new day and use my individual call sign and got an additional 32 contacts on 20 and 40. Had to bust out the fire pit to stay warm, since the wind was kicking up a little bit.
Overall, I think it was a successful day, especially with the first time I’m using that tactical delta loop in the field and I definitely had better luck than most.
K7FC: I started the club activation out at Tugman State Park north of Lakeside in Coos County. I set up an end-fed half wave antenna with a telescopic mast and my Icom 705. Conditions were tough, I spent my time on the 20 meter band and it took about an hour to make 10 contacts. I then packed up and headed south and joined John KK6GUK at the North Spit BLM boat ramp. John had quite the set up with a pop-up tent and a large delta loop antenna that proved to be much better than my end-fed half wave antenna based on the location, surrounded by saltwater, and the gain of the delta loop. We were joined by Al KK7CLH, Tina (don’t know Tina’s callsign), and Vic K7YMM. We were able to hear Gary activating Bullard’s Beach State Park on 20m SSB, but he could not hear us when we tried to call him. I was able to make 10 more QSOs at the BLM site, and John made almost 80 by the end of the day.
Thanks to everyone who made an effort to get on the air as a club for the event.
KK7WXV: Bandon State Natural Area, from the China Beach access I called on 20m for a while but nothing. My ultra portable radio can make only 10W. Could only see a few signals in my waterfall. The solar geomagnetics shut me down completely.
Also tried VHF Simplex 146.520 @ 80W … And made one contact but they didn’t give their call sign.
About 1:30 I could finally hear Gary 100W on 20m (< 10mi away) but very noisy. He reported via telephone that my signal was indiscernible from his noise.
I could hear with them, but my handhelds could not hold the Beaver Hill repeater from China Beach to communicate with the others.
Coos County Radio Club 