A Tale of Two Kenwoods and DX!
So, propagation’s getting pretty darn good right around now! 15 and 17 meters have been open pretty much every day from the late morning until 1 or so pm EST, which has been awesome. All the DX you could ever want, just give these bands a try. As you can see, it’s been open to all over Europe, and the US stations are pretty readable on my Carolina Windom OCF dipole at about 50 feet or so in the trees. Right now, I even hear an XE1 station calling CQ, booming in. It’s been a lot of fun, but with just 100w, persistence is key. Also, I’ve found that raising my voice in pitch and volume a little bit helps cut through the QRM, and finding the perfect time to call when a station is working the pile-ups is key. I even called CQ a few times, and had the GM4,CT1, and HA8 stations come back to me! Let the stations work for you, ya know? 
| Q# | Callsign | Date | Time On | Band | Mode | Name | QTH |
| 392 | EA4LH | 2010-02-28 | 16:51 | 15 | SSB | George | Spain |
| 391 | 5E50SA | 2010-02-28 | 16:32 | 15 | SSB | Morocco! | |
| 390 | HA8PA | 2010-02-28 | 16:19 | 15 | SSB | Tibi | SE Hungary |
| 389 | CT1DSV | 2010-02-28 | 16:17 | 15 | SSB | Joseph | NW PORTUGAL |
| 388 | GM4XZN | 2010-02-28 | 16:15 | 15 | SSB | Scotland | |
| 387 | TM7AAW | 2010-02-27 | 15:10 | 17 | SSB | Franc | Macon France |
| 386 | EU1UN | 2010-02-27 | 15:05 | 17 | SSB | Serge | Minsk Belarus |
| 385 | S52BB | 2010-02-27 | 14:43 | 17 | SSB | Zirk | Slovenia |
| 384 | 9A1CCY | 2010-02-27 | 14:42 | 17 | SSB | Tom | Croatia |
| 383 | K6SMF | 2010-02-22 | 22:54 | 17 | SSB | Neil | Southern CA |
Also, an addition to my shack: The glorious Kenwood TK380. It’s a commercial-grade UHF handheld that does 4 watts on 440-490mhz, is computer programmable (and front panel, by a mod), and you can load up… 128 channels, I believe (or 600 trunking). I’ve been having lots of fun with it, does a great job of scanning. However, I need to get it adjusted to receive below 450mhz, because at the moment, it does not. 
It’ll transmit fine, and I can key up the 440 repeaters way better than I could with my other handheld, but as far as receiving them… nada. I think the PLL gets unlocked below 450, and the VCO can’t steer that low. If anyone knows a way around this, please let me know!
It’ll transmit fine, and I can key up the 440 repeaters way better than I could with my other handheld, but as far as receiving them… nada. I think the PLL gets unlocked below 450, and the VCO can’t steer that low. If anyone knows a way around this, please let me know!And hey, now we’ve got a little Kenwood Korner in my shack, with the TK380, TS450S HF rig, and the TM-733A dual-band 2M/440 radio (not pictured, didn’t occur to me until after I took the picture.)
