The bands were busy today. I recently picked up an ex-display Chameleon MPAS Lite antenna and today was the first chance I had to try it out.
I was in my usual east London park. I managed to set up the antenna, and KX3 quickly. No throwing wires into the trees, and hoping I didn’t get hit by falling branches!
The bands were really open, I managed to log 2 5000+ Km QSOs, and 6 1000+ Km European contacts all on 12-15W.
On 15M I managed to get a POTA QSO with KC1QDZ in US-8293 just as he was going QRT. His signal was up and down and for about 30-40 seconds propagation stayed up long enough for us to have a short 1-2 minute QSO. Nice! 5000+Km again on 15W.
17M was busy too. I logged LB8TG (Norway), IR4RPAR, IU0OXQ, IW0HOQ (Italy), SV1HAV (Greece), OM0ET (Slovakia). I also heard USA (Florida, Virginia), GB2NZ, Serbia, Russia, Asiatic Russia.
12M Was very noisy at times but heard UR5 (Ukraine), OH8 (Finland), VJ2 (Australian! Early in the day, and down in the noise), RW1 (Russia). I heard LZ2 (Bulgaria), RU (Russia), LB0 (Norway).
10M was really open too. I logged VA3XDX (Ontario, Canada) after a constant 8-9 minutes calling. I managed to hear VK4KW (Australia!), RD3DX (Russia).
My MPAS Lite was quick to put up, and seemed to work well today. The propagation was good today, so I’m not going to put my 2 5000+ Km contacts down to just the antenna. Let’s see how it performs next time.
Maybe it was the proximity to the squirrel?