Despite the wind and rain, and urban QRN I put 37 additional stations in the log during this pass. VK5APN motivated me to get back on after a brief nap for a sked and I'm glad he did as I worked three JA stations and XE2AT in addition. That made a total of 71 stations worked for the Nevada trip.
The noise blanker in my K3 really saved the day. The QRN was 12 db above my usual resting receive level, with some careful adjustment I was able to kill off the noise and keep going. I never knew that the noise blanker would work so well on JT65 signals. This is good to know going forward.
A casino RV Park is not the idea place for an EME effort, but with the high winds and rain the warm trailer looked like a better option with the comforts of home and mains power. Operating in these conditions on the government land would have been wallowing in the mud - the clay in the west becomes "gumbo" when it gets wet! Who would have thought dry Nevada would get two big storms back to back.
I re-calibrated the K3 between sessions but it was still +700Hz in frequency, I'll have to figure that out - there is a quick mod to the ref. oscillator board I'll have to install. The short term cure of course was to just compensate and set the VFO to 144.137.3 MHz.
Thanks to all the great EME ops for spreading out and to keep calling. I C U !
Logged this moon pass: VE1KG (-26), PE1L (-27), SM2BYC (-21), RW1AY (-26), OH7PI (-24), W4YTB (-22), PA5Y (-20), PA3FPQ (-27), DF2ZC (-24), W1PV (-21), DK3WG (-27), PA0JMV (-21), ES3RF (-19), DL8FBD (-25), DK5EW (-29), OK2PMS (-22), SM5DIC (-27), HA8CE (-25), PA3FYC (-21), I3MEK (-19), SK5AA (-21), DG0OPK (-22), OK1TEH (-23) single Yagi, DD0VF (-22) two Yagi, YU3CBZ (-20), DL7FF (-17), CT1HZE (-19), DL4KUG (-27), PA3CMC (-15), DL8DAU (-23) two Yagi, N1DNN (-23), KC4SW (-24), VK5APN (-22), JP3EXR (-19), XE2AT (-27), JA1PFP (-20), and JH0BBE (-27).
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| Signals were very good on this trip. |
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| The station. |
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| Classic basin and range country just south of Jackpot, Nevada between storms. |