17metre contacts

07.52 today EK3GM FT8 new DXCC
07.36 today HL5BLI FT8 new DXCC

Quite a few Chinese and Taiwan plus Asiatic Russia.

SSB, 10w

JW0X - Svalbard

Well pleased with managing to break the pileup on split to get that one in the log this evening. Power to the little stations!

Well done guys

17m is such a great band but sadly I’ve no antenna for it  




Craig CT Admin

XV9K Vietnam.
FT-8 10W

Re the above.
I don't get this as when i put his call in qrz it says Berlin.
Top line in the picture.

Nice contact Alan. You're all good I believe, do search on other ham sites and you'll see he is a German but is operating from Vietnam. Here's one page showing:
https://dxnews.com/forum/forum/contesting/30518-xv9k-mui-ne-vietnam

Thanks for that one Neal.
Got me going that did.

Loving my home brew end-fed.
Not a new country but just had VK1DO.(ft8)...
So it does work lol.

Finally plucked my South America cherry!


PY5QW - Brazil - FT8 10W


All thanks to his HUGE antenna farm and much patience on his behalf.
(Never thought it'd happen on 17m though.)

Had to think on my feet, (terrible joke for a cripple!). Wasn't getting anywhere so tuned my radio down by 500Hz so that I could TX in the clear lower down the waterfall and after many attempts I finally got through.
(My old Yaesu FT757gx doesn't like transmitting down there.)

Band died off shortly after so was lucky to catch it. (Did catch another USA contact before it did though.)


Very happy with my meagre setup and gives me a lot of fun.

(Must crack this Oceania next!)

Excellent Victor, well done!

Haven't cracked Oceania still yet. Good luck, but got a feeling you won't need it and that you'll beat me to doing so.

Should also say well done on using our foundation power levels to do these contacts too. Not being into the digital scene I had in my mind FT8 being low power mode, but forcing myself to read a little about it I see it's a 'weak signal mode'. Read up on after I had a 10m QSO with a person in the US who was using 1.5kW to talk to me on SSB and listing all his other equipment to me he said he uses just a little Acom 1010 amp for FT8. I looked up that "little" amp and umm.. "little"?  So I see what some of you FT4/8ers are actually competing with now.

Very much appreciated Neal.

Still haven't had a confirmation from Brazil yet, (not unusual but an FT8 contact is confirmation in itself), although I have had a USA confirmation.

As you know with our 10 Watts we have to work that little bit harder.

Now that I've extended my attic lawnmower lead antenna to a little over 66 foot it's almost a perfect 'Extended Double Zepp' at 17m (and almost at 15m too) so in theory gives me a +3dB gain. Luckily my house alignment gives me an almost perfect NNW/SSE direction on that gain. Can't move the house to swing that gain around though!

Yeah, there's a lot of "big boys" nowadays on the digimodes, usually splattering or wiping everyone out. Just like on 20m SSB there's usually a lot of Italian stations beaming over our heads to hit the States.

If you can find a gap on the waterfall you can usually bust through and I've had contacts as low as -21dB or even -22/-23dB which would never happen with SSB. FT8 does have it's advantages there and FT4 frequencies tend to be quieter so can give surprising contacts too.

It's at those times that I can thank the big beam boys though, if they're not otherwise busy looking for 'rare' stations.
(My signals were hitting all over the States last night but they were all busy launching to 3C3CA Equatorial Guinea!)


For my setup I find it all fun and about as 'radio' as it can all be.
From watching propagation conditions, (real time rather than predictions), playing with antennas, tuning around the waterfall, jumping along the bands, (thanks to my 600 ohm ladderline and ATU), the WJST-X software, PSKReporter and more recently GridTracker it keeps you rather busy!

A lot more fun than the point and click it must be with a beam and 'More Watts Igor' box at your disposal.


I've just about scraped 57 countries so far since I came back to it all Neal and pretty pleased with my what some would call a 'mediocre' station. You know the fun of QRP and I'll always be impressed with how well you do on voice modes especially on those upper HF bands.

You can spend a lot of time on SSB for that couple of seconds "5/9 QRZ" reply and so far I've been less than impressed, whereas digimodes have caught my attention and probably will for some time yet. Oceania is still eluding me, can hear loads but so far not got back....yet!)


Thanks again Neal and enjoy your radio.

All the best,
Victor

I have worked PY5QW on 40metres but nothing so far, QRZ he says LOTW only.

Ivy Mike wrote:

I have worked PY5QW on 40metres but nothing so far, QRZ he says LOTW only.

Yep can confirm that one is LOTW only. Only way to get a star on QRZ is to import confirmations from LOTW.



'Stars' might not be important to some, but if they are it is worth enrolling on LOTW as you will get more confirmations on your QRZ. I am using LOTW for three reasons; Firstly as a backup if QRZ goes down/disappears. Secondly, it's the easiest way to apply for the ARRL DXCC awards (I still have work to do to qualify for any  ). Thirdly, I am not currently sending paper QSLs so trying to do my bit to keep other hams happy by confirming online.

With the third point above, I recently started using eQSL. That has been useful in gaining a few more 'stars' on QRZ. You can't import confirms in there, but you can check to see if other people you have had QSOs with have logged on there and compare then with times/dates you have logged on QRZ, and adjust slightly if there is a mismatch... if you are really really desperate for that QRZ star. Sometimes I have found completely barmy time stamps on eQSL that I know for definite are incorrect e.g. months difference, in which I have not modified my times and forfeited the star as I am not messing with my log times and dates that much.

Steering my waffle back to topic, sorry, will look forward to seeing more contacts on 17m from you Victor and others. I have had a few good ones on there and 12m. Both bands don't tend to suffer quite so much traffic as the other bands which helps us little stations have a bit ore of chance to get through.

Cheers for the info on PY5QW there Mike and Neal, much appreciated.


That's some great pointers with LOTW and eQSL Neal which will definitely help members utilising such tools.

I did spend some time designing my own electronic QSL card and even a system of data entry after receiving a couple of nice ones via email. Despite the work involved and sending a lot out I barely had much response so eventually as well as unfortunately stopped doing it.
(I think the 'rarer' squares and call signs are most sought.)

Always disappointing when their data doesn't match yours and I've had a number of unaccepted digimode entries on QRZ usually because their transmitted Maidenhead doesn't match their QRZ location.(?!?!?) Again despite trying email communications to rectify them there's usually little or no response.

Luckily although the 'awards' are useful goals to achieve so pushing us on I don't overly worry about them nowadays. (I set my own goals.)
My logs are also kept locally and routinely backed up after hearing horror stories of others losing theirs so that gives at least some peace of mind. (Avoids the 'give-us-your-money' subscription services too!)


You're quite right though Neal, 17m is often a wonderful band to work and just like the other WARC bands much better for some of us smaller station operators. As Foundation holders here in the UK we're lucky to have access to them. 

Enjoy your radio. 

Just seen your last Neil so i though i would add 2 contacts.
The last 2 contacts i had yesterday where on 17m ft4.
NE8Z qrz Time 18.20 on 18.106mhz USA.
NF3R   ""     ""  18.19 on 18.106mhz USA.

Not an impressive DX by any means but an awesome Ham operator contact....

SP7X - Poland FT8 10W


Through the QSO we had a Norwegian station blast through making it rather difficult but persistence paid off and we finished the contact. Jaroslaw, SP7X then sent a brief FT8 message across the band reading "TNX VICTOR 73".

To say I was chuffed was an understatement.


(I gave up trying to call the USA after constantly being stomped on. )

Nice one Victor.
Waite till you hear a funny sound from your pc.
You look up and the chat box is flashing or something and the other station wants a chat with you.
Didn't know what was going on the first time it happened to me at 5am lol.

Put a much needed smile on my face Alan mate.
 

The USA was lit up like a Christmas tree on PSKReporter and despite being late in the day I thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately everyone and their dog has finished work so grabbing some FT8 time themselves and it was flipping manic!

Not wanting to give up with no contacts I responded to Jaroslaw and was especially pleased with the outcome.

So much so that I sent him a custom QSL card just to say thanks.



I'll have to look out for that chat thing, is that on GridTracker?

Yes in GridTracker.
You will see it at the bottom of the box thingy you know where the settings tab is.
Green and a blue bubbles if you click on it it brings a panel up and down the right side is a list of all the stations on.
Just click on a call if you want to send a message.

Ah, OK I shall have to take a look for it.

Despite my initial misgivings with GridTracker and the QRZ subscription thing I have found it rather useful even just using current live data. I am looking at ways of seeing of I can point it to a local logbook file so that I can see confirmed squares but otherwise it's much handier than I first thought.

Here, VK7AC was on the bands last night but try as I might I still haven't grabbed that Oceania contact yet!

One day Victor one day.
And soon i think.

Alan Pilot wrote:

Nice one Victor.
Waite till you hear a funny sound from your pc.
You look up and the chat box is flashing or something and the other station wants a chat with you.
Didn't know what was going on the first time it happened to me at 5am lol.

Wondered why that ruddy box kept coming up.
Hope I didn't upset anyone for not replying.

Not a fast typer here and it distracts a bit.

Mike
One fingered dyslexic here so i keep it short lol.

More fun on 17m recently and finding it a really interesting band.

Had some more usual daytime contacts into Continental Europe bagging Crete for the first time to add to the list of countries worked in my log. Decided to check the band out during the night time and was surprised with the amount of USA stations coming through so gave it a crack with my usual 'search and pounce' technique rather than CQ calling. Blow me, bit of hard work (but thoroughly enjoyable) to add a couple more states to the log. Gained my 'World Friendship' on 17m too to add to the 80/40/30/20/10m I've already gained.

I must say that out of all the bands 17m (and 12m surprisingly) has been the hardest for QRP contact but also the most rewarding for DX contacts overall. I never imagined that I'd get far flung contacts like the USA, Japan or South America but have happily achieved them on this band.

If you've never tried the 17m band before it might be well worth giving it a go. 

Victor wrote:

Ah, OK I shall have to take a look for it.

Despite my initial misgivings with GridTracker and the QRZ subscription thing I have found it rather useful even just using current live data. I am looking at ways of seeing of I can point it to a local logbook file so that I can see confirmed squares but otherwise it's much handier than I first thought.

Here, VK7AC was on the bands last night but try as I might I still haven't grabbed that Oceania contact yet!

Being a lazy git I have Gridtracker auto logging to eQSL, QRZ and LOTW,
WSJT-X auto logs to Hamradio Delux.