Listening to and Finally Working the Super Amateur Radio Station KE5EE

The Super Amateur Radio Station of KE5EE is quite popular in this region as many of my friends are able to work him regularly on 14.207 MHz in the evening around 5.30 pm IST (UTC+5.30). Some time back I gave him a call after a VU station had signed off with him and thought that I received a 5,5 report, though the copy was not good at my end. I was using an inverted V dipole antenna for 20m, without a balun at the feedpoint then. After that I have been monitoring the frequency on several evenings and used to hear KE5EE only faintly. After renovating my End Fed Half Wave antenna by cutting the radiating element into half so that the 40-10m antenna would become 20-10m antenna, I could hear some VU stations and nearby DX better. I thought that more horizontal mounting made feasible by the shorter length suiting my small terrace space could be the reason.

Two days back I listened to KE5EE again and I heard several VU stations working him with 5,7 reports. Here is a short recording:

Though I could hear VU stations well, copy from KE5EE was not that strong because of nearly S8 level of noise. I tried a call and fortunately, though KE5EE did not hear my call, VU2PEP heard me and mentioned to KE5EE that I was trying to call him. Immediately KE5EE gave me a specific call and I replied. I was glad to clearly hear a 4,4 report amidst the noise. Anyone interested in checking 20m propagation is quite welcome to attend the propagation check by Stan as he keeps on calling stations wishing to get reports. My friends have told me that he will be there regularly on 14.207 MHz on all days, for about one hour. It is a great help for VUs as we have only a small time window to contact United States and it is often quite tough to get through well to the other side of the globe. KE5EE with an excellent setup which you can see on his QRZ profile, is able to pick up even our weak signals!