This time it was the SSB League, which I didn’t participate in at full capacity. I lost the frequency several times while operating in SO2V mode, but I appreciate that the incoming stations always asked before starting their calls.
Before the SSB League, I made a few contacts, with the last one also serving as my first contact of the contest. Apparently, several stations were listening on the frequency, because others started calling right away. After them, however, there was silence. I had several such quiet stretches during the November SSB League. Propagation conditions looked good, but there seemed to be few stations. Perhaps the excellent VHF conditions and the A1 Marconi Memorial Contest had drawn them to higher frequencies.
I made several contacts in SO2V mode. Here, for example, I made a QSO with OM0AJ on VFO B. Note that OM6ADC asked if the frequency was clear:
That’s a drawback of SO2V. I could have also transmitted a “busy” response. But at that moment, I couldn’t hear what OM0AJ was transmitting. SO2R mode doesn’t have this limitation. However, implementing it on a single band is technically very challenging.
It was surprising that stations were tuning in very close to my frequency during my call, even as someone was pointing out the width of my transmitted signal. However, when I checked the SDR, the width of my signal didn’t seem unusually wide to me. As usual, I used a Yaesu FT-1000MP with an SDR output and a G2DAF-designed HF amplifier driven at 250W, though not continuously.
Number of contacts per minute in the November 2024 SSB League
After one hour, there were 84 contacts with 56 OK and OM districts, which amounts to 4,648 points.
