Booooooooo!

[WA5VQM]

OK, I know Halloween is coming up so this will sound like nonsense but I was on 15M this morning and working a bit of the DX contest. Tuning around I heard one guy that was on LSB instead of the usual USB. Hmm. I switched over to LSB and the guy was calling CQ. AA6BB. I figured he wasn't into the contest. Fair enough, no problem. I looked him up and found this in his bio:

"This station is a SK"

He had a good signal...from wherever his QTH was. I'm a bit concerned it was LOWER sideband however.... I figured that was too much DX for me and moved on....

73 Mark - WA5VQM


http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[kf6rdn]

Hey, he's right near my Dad.. Er.. was..

Anyway, the dude you heard may have been bootlegging his call. Lower SSB is typically used by cb ops on legit as well as freeband.

[k6pme]

According to the QRZ listing "detailed info" link AA6BB expired 26 April 2004. Further checking on the ULS listing shows that it hasn't been re-issued. Definately a bootlegger.

[WA5VQM]

Oh, well, I was hoping for some "rare" DX there!
The guy sounded more like a ham than a CBer but they're ya' go.
Glad I didn't try to work him.

I was hoping for a good Halloween story!

73 Mark WA5VQM

[k6pme]

Quote[/b] (WA5VQM @ Oct. 29 2005,10:18)]I was hoping for a good Halloween story!

73 Mark WA5VQM
But then....Maybe it WASN'T a bootlegger..... ~creepy~

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[w4rot]

Don't forget to work Translyvania.........
County,NC that is.
I think I've soiled me armor.
w4rot

Oct 31, 1600Z-2400Z, Brevard, NC. Transylvania County Amateur Radio Club, K4HXZ. Halloween in Transylvania County. 28.335 21.365 14.295 7.237. Certificate. TCARC, PO Box 665, Pisgah Forest, NC 28768.

also FYI

Oct 31-Nov 1, 0500Z-0500Z,
Frankenstein, MO. Warrensburg Amateur Radio Club, W0O. All-Saints Day/Halloween. 21.378 14.315 7.233 3.943. QSL. Keith Haye, WE0G, 70 NW 601 Rd, Centerview, MO 64019-9228. http://www.waarci.org/.

[KA4DPO]

My daughter just got back from a trip to Romainia. She brought me a bottle of Vampire wine and a small bottle of some kind of homebrew plum brandy that will knock your socks off and run the lawnmower. Turns out she could have bought Vampire wine here in the states but it's the thought that counts.

Oh, she saw the Dracula Castle and said it was totaly tourist...

[WA5VQM]

Quote[/b] (KA4DPO @ Oct. 29 2005,18:34)]My daughter just got back from a trip to Romainia. She brought me a bottle of Vampire wine and a small bottle of some kind of homebrew plum brandy that will knock your socks off and run the lawnmower. Turns out she could have bought Vampire wine here in the states but it's the thought that counts.

Oh, she saw the Dracula Castle and said it was totaly tourist...
But Dracula doesn't drink....wine.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Mark - WA5VQM

[ab8ma]

Do LDE's sometimes switch sidebands? Like maybe it was reflected off the ion trail of a passing alien starship?

Just asking.

[VE7NOT]

that's weird... I can see the advantage of using the opposite sideband when a band is crowded, quite often i ask the other station to chnage sidebands so we can get out of the qrm, a freebander using 15m is new to me and as an ex freebander this is what i think happened:

Freebander is friend or relative of ham. Ham dies. Freebander get equipment either by buying it of the widow or inheriting it. Now freebander has a few hf rigs with 'lillions of channels' http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

He gives on to his buddy or prehaps a family member living far away and both set up stations.

Since the radios probably have the ham bands preselected he goes to 15m only changeing the switch to lsb like on 11m. Now they can communicate but to make sutre they dont get caught they use uassigned callsigns.

Oh prehaps a long delayed echo http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[w5lda]

VE7NOT

Have you ever thought of taking typing lessons?http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[VE7NOT]

Quote[/b] (kd5vsg @ Oct. 29 2005,20:34)]VE7NOT

Have you ever thought of taking typing lessons?http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif I type 30 wpm with two fingers.. When I was young that was how it was done unless you owned a typewriter and i didn't.. I prefer my way http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[VE7NOT]

One more possibility i know of that most of u don't think of. Maritime radios are quite avalable where used boats are sold etc. most can tune the whole hf band.

I know a few 'family goups use 9400khz lsb http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

they often figure out that they get better reception on lower frequencies and night and better on high in day and follow this rule. I bet a quarter of what I heard on maritime bans is not legit. I've heard 'family communication' on the 21m band before between east and west coast stations.

Now a side point my uncle and dad used to do this http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif They used maritime radios pulled from boats. Dad used a wire strung aroudn the attic my uncle used an abandoned clothes line. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

I think we used something like 4mhz or something cause it always did the 120 miles path and often the 500 miles to another uncle using an avonics converted radio http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

Now as illegal as they were it was my introduction to hf to work on what my dad called then 'family radio' (this was the late 80's early 90s)

[kc0vrs]

a ghost?

[w8cbc]

In a band full of USB, LSB doesn't do anything but cause yet more interference. It still takes up spectrum. Nothing "magic" there.

I've heard Spanish-speaking LSB in 15 metres. I'd just assumed the "usual" practise is different in some areas of Latin America. Maybe not.