It’s the first weekend in May, and most workers are looking forward to Monday, when they’ll have the day off. At the same time, the 2nd subregional VHF contest is taking place this weekend. That certainly had an impact on participation in the May round of the 2023 SSB League.
Before the SSB League begins, I make a few test contacts. However, during the contact with Ferko OM8TA, various odd noises are coming through my headphones alongside the desired signal. Tracing their source is easy—OK1KTW. Listen to what their signal sounded like (around the 20-second mark in the recording):
Dočítate sa:
How to prevent a bad signal?
This kind of thing can happen to anyone. It’s likely some kind of technical glitch. In addition to evaluating the signal on the band, we can also check our own signal using a webSDR receiver. Jan (OM0AJ) and I adjusted the TCVR settings this way twice, spending half an hour each time. Finding the right settings isn’t always easy. And I think OM0AJ’s results—along with the quality of his SSB signal—prove that it was worth the effort.
May Round of the SSB League
So in the first few minutes, instead of making contacts, I spend my time explaining the situation, because I simply can’t hear anything over all that static. After that, things go more smoothly. I even spot call signs that I don’t usually log.
In my contacts with Števo OM7KW, we end up with almost the same number of contacts, and the same goes for Jan OM0AJ. In the lower band, I also find Tibor OM3SEM (Komárno district) and Miro OM5RW (Partizánske district). Later, I find even more stations there.
Here are the audio recordings from the SSB League – May 2023
I used my usual setup: a Yaesu FT-1000MP transceiver with a small transistor amplifier and an inverted Vee antenna. After an hour of operation, I logged 90 contacts. After my last contact with OM1EE, I cleared the frequency for him.