Gil is safe in the home port. Now time to RECOVER from his 'vacation'.

-RadioRay  ..._ ._

SAFE @ 02:51 , in a marina 8 km south/east of Toulon. Sailing across in rough weather and navigating into an unknown small marina in the dark, >solo<, with little or no sleep... VERY difficult.

Well done Gil! 

de RadioRay  ..._ ._

Ps.  It may take some time to feel normal to walk on UNmoving land after those days in a bumpy sea.

I agree!

It looked like a rough night out there. Satellite weather last night indicated constant 27kt winds with gusts to 40kt ,  quartering/beam seas average wave-height of 2 meters with occasional larger waves (up to 2x) . On-watch in the cockpit must have been exhausting. Today's forecast looks a little better.

73 de Ray  ..._ ._

If anyone makes contact via radio ( I am too far away in the USA) please post details here :-)

RadioRay ...- .-

Gil said : ..."there are three high-db reports of me on 10118 on the 11th. Those are fake."

That explained those huge signals in the Canadian/US Pacific North-West, yet nothing in Europe at that time.

I hope that you get some good rest tonight and a continuing fine sail.


>Ray

Reverse Beacon Network showed the following.  // Gil reported that these are fake, not him. //

F4WBY   10118.0   CW CQ   31 dB   17 wpm   2033z 11 Jul
F4WBY   10118.1   CW CQ   50 dB   17 wpm   2033z 11 Jul
F4WBY   10118.0   CW CQ   34 dB   17 wpm   2033z 11 Jul

I believe that we know this fellow :-).  Port tack and a beautiful day.

>>> Gil said that he will try to be on freq tonight. Looking at his course and speed , I am assuming his QTP/QTH should be the coast slightly west of Barcelona.

Gil's Garmin track shows that he has launched into the Med Sea , making almost five knots !

The Paraset !  I could certainly a video of you making contact with England while using a Paraset from France
;-)

Of course, if you EVER find one of these at a hamfest ---



73 de Ray  ..._ ._

$500  Ouch!  With one frequency in the 80m band and possible one other at the high end of 80m , depending upon the variant, you're better with the choices you've already made in QRP rig.  The COOL factor is quite high with the PRC-316 though ;-)

de RadioRay  ..._ ._

Retirement and ham radio are a good mix. 

My Wife & I saw a plaque a few days ago that said it all:

   -Retirement -
Twice the husband.
  Half the money.


Welcome aboard -

Bushy de Ray -...-

How goes the Morse code practice ? Have you tried a first contact? 

73 de Ray

Thanks for the update & especially the SPAM fighting.
-...-

Here, my BRAVE browser will not logon but the Firefox and phone does (same password: "1234" but don't tell anyone!!!).  Other than that, it seems to work well .

73 de Ray  ..._ ._

High winds broke the line holding up my 80-10m dipole, leaving it laying in lower tree tops, AND it's pointed the wrong way to hear France.  However, I heard Gil veeeeery weakly while he was in Morse QSO with a German station.  Gil was using his home made magnetic loop on the balcony and MTR - 5 Watt transceiver! Unfortunately, I heard him probably at the end of the band opening, because by the time the Dk/F4 QSO ended, I tried calling him while he was fading fast. Of course, my RF noise level at this little country cottage is extremely LOW. His RF noise level in an apartment in a town  - I do not know, but local RF noise from chargers, displays, power supplies & etc.  can make a huge difference.

5W, homemade magloop on balcony, distance = 4196.5 mi (6753.7 km)

Food for Thought:   the German station Gil had talked with was easily readable, and -technically- could have relayed some short messages between Gil & I pretty easily. That could be handy in a grid down situation.

72 de RadioRay  ..._ ._

Aaah Bushy!

Good to hear from you, my old friend.   You'll be happy to know that I too am now a pensioner - never thought I'd see the day ;-) 

Like you, the sounds of Morse is also comforting to me, and I usually have a receiver with a wide filter to hear Morse conversations in the background when I'm in my little shed, working on projects. Your practice process provides you a skill-set for life.  Unpretentious, simple, accurate Morse is a workhorse that can be depended upon, and enjoyed even when I've been down to my last copper.

You Morse regimen sounds quite reasonable. To communicate at an accurate 8-10 words per minute in a robust mode like Morse is far superior to 'sometimes' being able to communicate at thousands of baud > if everything is running correctly  and electrical power is plentiful < ( and IF Windows does not kill the system with an infernal update ;-) As the saying goes: "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King."

GReat to hear from you !


> Ray

Ps. I once had a girlfriend who -quite literally- could not open a can of food without electricity...  that didn't last long.