I copy part of Szigy's email which he sent to me soon after our meeting 'on the air', particularly because it emphasises how challenging amateur radio communication is on longwave; as I know only too well myself, even over distances of just a few hundred kilometres. Szigy wrote:
"Dear Steve pleased to run a fine QSO with you, the very first SP-YO on 2.2Km. Signal was nice but with a deep QSB on the midle of the QSO. At the beginning had some problem with a flashover in the teflon feedtrough my window, it take one hour to change the isolator.Will send you a direct QSL in the next days. Once more thanks for the new one ! Have fun on VLF it's always a big chalenge, gl."
One of the challenges is typically the use of short inefficient antennas, ( because of the nearly 2.2km wavelength ), causing high voltages of several KV to appear at various places in the antenna system. Unluckily for Szigy during our contact, he had to take time out to tackle a problem of insulator flashover !
Earlier this week, I cleared ice and snow from my antenna in order to make it useable once more; but even then I had a flashover problem which I was able to prevent happening again, and fortunately nothing went wrong at my end during the contact with Szigy.
Stop press: In the last few minutes I have achieved another "first", Estonia. Incredible conditions on longwave this weekend, and some stations active making the most of them. What a start to 2011 on 2190 !
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