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KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Operating notes: LID!, iced out, short skip

Posted: 19 Dec 2021 05:27 PM PST https://www.kb6nu.com/operating-notes-lid-iced-out-short-skip/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email


About a week ago, I called CQ on 40 meters, and had a station reply, GET AN
8 CALL LID. Of course, there was no ID. Now, I thought Id done everything right. I called QRL? before launching into my CQ and my sending was pretty good, I thought. So, who knows?
Ice on the ladder line

Friday night, we got some freezing rain here. It wasnt a lot, and by late Saturday morning, the roads were clear. Oddly, though, the ice persisted on trees and bushes. It was quite beautiful, actually.  I actually should have taken some pictures.

The ice also failed to melt off my 450 Ω feedline. And, when I tried to
make some contacts late Saturday evening, I found that the antenna wouldnt
tune up on 40 meters. Since it was cold and dark by that time, I just gave
up for the evening.

This morning, I did go out in the backyard and knock as much ice off the feedline as I could manage. Voila! It worked!
NVIS propagation?

I dont know if  antenna icing had any role in this, but I had a couple of really short-distance, 40-meter contacts today. The first was with NJ8D in Homer, MI, which QRZ.Com says is 68 miles away.  The second was with W8KZW, who is only 25 miles away from me. Both were nearly S9 here in Ann Arbor.

The first is definitely sky-wave propagation. The second could possibly be ground-wave propagation, but I doubt it. Im also wondering if the higher
solar flux index might have played a part in making these contact possible.
As Im writing this (at 8:30 pm EST), the solar flux is 117, and signals are still pretty strong on 40 meters.

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