California Dreamin'

For one reason or another, California has evaded me until this afternoon. I overhead Paul EA5IKJ (a DX legend in his own right) talking to a W6. I usually catch Paul talking to the most exotic DX and have no hope of hearing the far end, but this time I did.

And it was none other than another legend, Jim Heath w6lg - who I have heard a couple of times, but never worked.

Paul was on his way to perform his evening ablutions  - so I grabbed Jim at the end of their QSO and landed my first California QSO.

Jim's QRZ page is contains lots of useful information - including a youtube video discussing the origins of the term "ham".

Unusual time of day

It's rare to hear the US West Coast any time of day, but 19:00z especially so. The VOA prediction turned out to be accurate today, so why don't we hear more W Coast signals?

From the twente SDR in Holland (about 250 miles away) ...
(actually louder at the CYK QTH, but I didn't have the recorder running)

..

Decent signal in -5/9

The G0KYA HAMCAP prop forecast is more pessimistic but generally more realistic in my experience (remember the references are 100W/dipole at 35'))