I want to say thank you for all kind remarks that have come my way on this site. I hope I can live up to them! As for my envisioned DXpedition to the north of WA - all I can say is in the words of the old song "If you don't have a dream ... how you going to have a dream come true?"

The only radio equipment I have at present is an Icom R2 communications receiver and a Degen DE1103 am-fm-sw receiver. Sadly, I have not heard the proverbial dickie bird on 11m, or any of the ham bands for that matter, for ages.

My QTH is in a favorable position and I have a diamond shape single element quad loop for 10-11m and a Sky Band discone for VHF-UHF scannining. Both the Icom and the discone are destined to be sold off as I believe in the KISS principle.

I have purchased a s/h Dragon SS485H which should arrive in about a week. Then I will need a power supply and maybe a small car battery will be the way to go - in which case I'll have to ask my daughter for the battery charger I gave her a week or so ago!

The vendor of the Dragon assures me it operates just fine but when first switched on the volume comes on loud and then settles after a minute. Does anyone have suggestions as to why this may happen? My thought it may have been do to a surge in his power supply when first switched on.

Then I guess I'll need an ATU, but no hurry since it seems all QSOs will be lost in outer space at this point in the cycle. Do DXtraterrestrials QSO on 11m?

Cheers de
Gayle (43)VH6-XYL