We Were Soldiers RTO

Someone asked my opinion about a scene in the movie, We Were Soldiers, where the RTO ginned up a doublet antenna for an AN/PRC-25 and copied a firefight in Viet-Nam into the American south. Could it have been done? The PRC-25's were FM at about 5 watts and in the 6 Meter band IIRC. In 1964, about the time of the events, the solar cycle was bottomed out but Sporadic-E propagation is seasonal and not dependent so much, if at all, on the solar cycle. Sporadic-E is the most common  DX mode for 6 Meters. The best I've  done on 6 Meters was about 5K miles to Uruguay at about 8 watts into a dipole variant. This was single sideband mode-more efficient than the FM PRCs. I've heard claims for trans continental with 5Watt FM handhelds so maybe it's possible. Any old RTOs out there have similar stories?

Tis a puzzlement
73 de Rob

Now if I Only Got Iceland and Finland Confirmed

Of course I was QRO (5W)
73 de Rob

15 Meters Got me a New One

At 2.5 watts!   73 de Rob

I Have a Follower!

Chris, KQ2RP was foolish enough to append his call to this blog! While I question his sanity I say FB OM and welcome aboard. And a fly fisherman too-I guess this means expounding on Hillbilly Tenkara.  

73 de Rob

Oh! Goodie Goodie!

A QSL with a zaggy prefix is good, Hawaii is good but a marine mobile is just icing on the cake! 40 and 20 have been nice. Now I've ordered the parts for a tuner to get down to 80 and 160 so the adventure continues.


73 de Rob

Class Act

I took my grandson, age three, to his first ball game at the Tampa Bay farm team the Princeton Rays. He had a ball, in more ways than one. The Ray's staff, when learning it was his first ball game immediately gave him a logo ball, to get signed. Some how he also ended up with two game balls, one signed by the only home run hitter of the afternoon (OK the home club coulda done better). It was refreshing to see an organization that went out of its way to ensure that any fan, not just my grandson, had a good time.  In these days of any event having an army of people pressure selling almost anything this was pleasant exception. My wife, also her first minors game, was amazed  to find characters right out of Bull Durham-gotta love minor league ball!

Nuttin to do with radio,
                73 de Rob

Big Chat Room in the Sky

Believe it or not the above phrase finally got a glimmer of understanding from one of the unwashed.  Italy, Spain, France and the UK were in the room last night. 73 de Rob