Thursday, I rolled out of bed at 0300 for my fluid adjustment, and decided to roll on out to the ham shack to see if I could fulfill one of my minor ambitions: working all continents on 40 meters.
40 is usually used for contacts within about 1500 miles. The higher bands, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meters are more often used for longer distances. 10 meters shuts down soon after sunset, and the other long distance bands typically follow suit later on. 40 can stay open all night.
I needed an Asia contact on 40 to finish working all continents on that band. That is best accomplished in winter, when it is twilight or dark at both ends of the path.
The Japanese stations were out in force. I worked 10 of them, plus Indonesia, Korea, and Eastern Kiribati out in the Pacific. What a kick!
Nothing special.... Basic 100 watt transceiver, FT8 mode, antenna designed for low angle radiation. The low angle antenna is the key. Antenna is built on a 56' fiberglass telescoping mast, with 3 different length vertical elements in parallel cut for 40, 30, and 17 meters. Feed point 18 feet above ground with a tuner there to let me work 60-10 meters. 6 radials, 16.5 feet long. Strong chokes at both ends of the coax.
I've had a passing interest in HAM and think its time to get more involved. If you were to start over what would you recommend as to equipment requirements for a newbie? Minimum for base units and mobile for ranges up to 1500 miles?
“Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” ― G. Orwell
"Why can't men kill big game with the same cartridges women and kids use?" _Eileen Clarke
"Unjust authority confers no obligation of obedience." - Alexander Hamilton
Probably the best selling transceiver is the Icom IC-7300, at around $1100. Or if you want used gear, the IC-706Gmkii is a good bet at around $650. For either of those, you'll need a 12V 25 amp power supply, about $130.
A basic dipole is a good place to start for an antenna.
If you want to use the digital modes, you'll need a computer. It doesn't have to be the most zippy model.
You'll need a General Class or better license. The exam is not too bad. Get the Technician and General exam study manuals from arrl.org. Find a local ham club that is sponsoring classes to get lots of help.
For mobile, most people use 2 meters (146 MHz). There are a lot of choices there, many below $250. A basic mag mount antenna, and you're good to go.
They do that to commercial radio stations too, I hate it.
Radio signals propagate by refraction off the ionosphere. The frequencies that can propagate are determined by the ion and free electron densities. That, in turn depends on the amount of ionizing radiation being received from the sun. 10 meters shuts down shortly after sunset because the ionizing radiation stops. 40 meters does not require as much density, so it can hang in for a long time as density drops after sunset.
AM broadcast station are required to drop power at night to reduce interference with other stations, except for a few "clear channel" stations.
Congregations Denton. There are Hams in our local club that have jumped on the FT 8 bandwagon in a big way. They are able to check off boxes on their log books that never would have happened with earlier versions of digital technologies.
Do you still do any SSB voice work? I think I've told you I'm a rag chewer. I'd pretty much rather watch paint dry than have my computer convey the most basic information possible to another computer to count as a log "contact". Everybody's different.
Congregations Denton. There are Hams in our local club that have jumped on the FT 8 bandwagon in a big way. They are able to check off boxes on their log books that never would have happened with earlier versions of digital technologies.
Do you still do any SSB voice work? I think I've told you I'm a rag chewer. I'd pretty much rather watch paint dry than have my computer convey the most basic information possible to another computer to count as a log "contact". Everybody's different.
Sure. I get on SSB, and enjoy it. Sometimes I get on our state message traffic net on 40, and take messages.
Right now , I'm on an FT8 kick. FT8 contacts aren't very engaging, but the content of the contact is essentially no different from CW or SSB contacts with most distant/rare countries: UR RST 599 TU 73.
My winter project is getting ready for Parks On The Air. I think that might be fun.
Thursday, I rolled out of bed at 0300 for my fluid adjustment, and decided to roll on out to the ham shack to see if I could fulfill one of my minor ambitions: working all continents on 40 meters.
40 is usually used for contacts within about 1500 miles. The higher bands, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meters are more often used for longer distances. 10 meters shuts down soon after sunset, and the other long distance bands typically follow suit later on. 40 can stay open all night.
I needed an Asia contact on 40 to finish working all continents on that band. That is best accomplished in winter, when it is twilight or dark at both ends of the path.
The Japanese stations were out in force. I worked 10 of them, plus Indonesia, Korea, and Eastern Kiribati out in the Pacific. What a kick!
0500, back in the sack, mission accomplished.
Fun, but probably not doing that again soon.
Clipperton will be on in January, I got them in ‘92. How many confirmed DXCC counties so far?
Thursday, I rolled out of bed at 0300 for my fluid adjustment, and decided to roll on out to the ham shack to see if I could fulfill one of my minor ambitions: working all continents on 40 meters.
40 is usually used for contacts within about 1500 miles. The higher bands, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meters are more often used for longer distances. 10 meters shuts down soon after sunset, and the other long distance bands typically follow suit later on. 40 can stay open all night.
I needed an Asia contact on 40 to finish working all continents on that band. That is best accomplished in winter, when it is twilight or dark at both ends of the path.
The Japanese stations were out in force. I worked 10 of them, plus Indonesia, Korea, and Eastern Kiribati out in the Pacific. What a kick!
0500, back in the sack, mission accomplished.
Fun, but probably not doing that again soon.
Clipperton will be on in January, I got them in ‘92. How many confirmed DXCC counties so far?
Years ago, I had DXCC with about another 50 confirmed but not submitted, so 150 at that time. Last fall I started on the current kick, and have 89 confirmed. No idea how many of those are duplicates vs. the old contacts.
I am just a SSB guy. No digital, no CW. At home 100 watts and a wire, and the wire not very high up at the moment. But, working on a project to get 58' of tower in the air across the street at the barn, going to run the coax under the street to the house. Made a lot of good progress but then stalled out a couple months ago when we got busy.
the wife and I do a fair amount of Parks on the Air, we like driving around and activating. Mostly TX panhandle and western OK. Many of the parks around here are fairly rare since there aren't many POTA folks in this area. Haven't really done any activations the last few weeks. Last activations were early Nov, Palo Duro Canyon SP and Buffalo Lake NNR.
There is a new park not too far away at the Charles Goodnight Museum we need to hit here soon. it is a sensitive area though and has to be low profile. I bought an ATAS-120 to hook to my FT-891 in the truck for that type of activation, but the antenna has been giving me fits on tuning. No doubt it is some type of bonding or grounding issue but I have not been able to figure it out yet. I may work on it some more tonight, re-route some wires/straps and see if I can get the gremlin out. AF5KU
I still need Asia to work all continents on 40 also.
That's harder from the east coast than from here in Utah. There is a short window around 1000 UTC that might work, but not for a lot of days. Drink lots of water before you go to bed.
