[Moon-net] The adventures of PA2DW

[Lance Collister]

DW Harms wrote:
> Moonnet de PA2DW,
>
> Yesterday I attempted to work PJ4EME. I was really surprised to see that
> their signal was a good -24 dB but I could NOT DECODE it with JT65b....
> So I just kept calling, hoping the system would eventually pick out the
> message, but alas!... My problem turned out to be that PJ4EME was not in my
> call3.txt database!
>
> This made me wonder about the functionality of JT65b. I mean, I had the deep
> search off and still JT65b needed the call PJ4EME to be added to the
> database to decode the message? That should not be the case I would say.
> When I did turn on the deepsearch, the system replied with "*" and that
> makes sense. It means "I see a message, but it does not match PA2DW PJ4EME".
> But how on earth can JT65b refuse to decode a signal of -24 dB, wihout
> having PJ4EME in the database? Perhaps Joe can shine his light on this.
>
> Any way, this nice adventure ended in a very strange way. Still calling
> PJ4EME, suddenly I saw my power dropping and at that very moment someone
> ringed the door. It was a little boy and his father, telling my antenna had
> caught fire and that one part of it was "launched" and now layed on the
> street in front of our house. That was my dipole... and still being partly
> on fire!
> So that means my dipole has some "RF-power limit" that I did not encounter
> before hi!! It could also be that the dipole was too badly damaged in the
> storm of last januari and had developed some mechanical weakness.
> Next week I will pick up new dipoles at I0JXX's stand at Ham-radio, so all
> will be fine again soon...
>
> VY 73, Dick PA2DW
>
> _______________________________________________
> Moon-Net posting and subscription instructions are at http://www.nlsa.com/nets/moon-net-help.html
>
>
>   
I think -24 dB is right on the edge of being strong enough to decode 
properly.  I can't remember but it seems to me that the decodes are 
about 50% of the time at -24 dB without any DEEP SEARCH help.  And of 
course, if there was rapid QSB or the -24 dB trace was too short in 
duration, it is not possible to get enough information for a clean 
decode.  GL and VY 73, Lance

-- 
Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex: WN3GPL, WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8)
P.O. Box 73
Frenchtown, MT  59834  USA
QTH: DN27UB
TEL: (406) 626-5728
URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj
2m DXCC #11/6m DXCC #815