HF Contacts 3.5MHz

Two new states on 80metres FT8 this morning.

AA7G 07:29utc FT8 FN31 New York State
K0TT  07:11utc FT8 EN34 Minnesota

FT8 this morning. 20/2/2022

07:20utc V31DL EK57 80Watts to a Hustler 6BTV + 65 radials

Two new countries on FT8 last Saturday 10th September.

05:19UTC XT2AW IK92 Burkina Faso
05:25UTC MW7TTA IO73 thank you for Wales Alan, sorry Alan but I forgot you were my second Wales on 80metres.
as I worked MW6PNW the Saturday before, the old brain is getting a bit sticky.  

Getting up early at the weekends to see what can be worked on 80/40metres.

Correction 3 new countries....
04:13UTC KP2B FK77 US Virgin Islands.

You get some nice contacts there Mike, (including our Alan).

I don't get much past Europe but then my antenna is way too short. Still fun though.

Didn't realize it was you Mike.
Thanks for the star.
I find 80m very noise but early on it is usable but after around 6.30 to 7am i move up to 40m for an hour or so then it's brew time and after that i go on 10m and work my way up during the day with a bit of ft4 if there is any.

Victor wrote:

You get some nice contacts there Mike, (including our Alan).

I don't get much past Europe but then my antenna is way too short. Still fun though.

Thanks Victor.
Surprising really because the Hustler is quite short on 80 and relies on the resonator.
I have around 65 short radials and going to add some more to get a few more wavelengths on 80metres.

As winter approaches 80 should get better and hopefully the DX as well.

Alan Pilot wrote:

Didn't realize it was you Mike.
Thanks for the star.
I find 80m very noise but early on it is usable but after around 6.30 to 7am i move up to 40m for an hour or so then it's brew time and after that i go on 10m and work my way up during the day with a bit of ft4 if there is any.

No problem nice to catch you on 80metres.

My system auto logs to QRZ, eQSL and LOTW after every good QSO.

If you want a paper QSL I have knocked up a PDF one that you can print if needed.

Thanks for the offer Mike.
Not much room left on the shack wall well until i do some tidying up lol.
Don't have a card as such myself i send a card with the Welch flag and a picture of Holy Island the one on my qrz page.
I sent it to free-prints to get it printed but don't send out much only when a Jap oy Yank sends me there's with the addressed envelope you must of had them they more likely to bin my photo and keep the Dragon lol.
Thanks again.

FT8 yesterday morning
06:12utc TO2DL FK96 New

8w FT8 this evening: HB9EFK, DJ1AA, and F5RRS

That's not going to impress many of you, I know lol, but I am happy as they are my first 80m FT8 contacts. It might possibly impress some of you more to learn that as well as only using 8w, the signal was fed into this...



...that's a 9:1 balun on top my wash basket on my bed. 4m of wire off one end hanging out the window and 10m off the other going out onto the landing, up into the loft and wrapped around a few rafters in a loop. I've set up similar before to work 30m, and that is what I intended to try tonight. The SWR is usually about 3:1 and the rig tuner makes it "good". 30m seemed a bit quiet, so I decided to see if it would tune up on other bands. Weirdly on 80m it had a near perfect match between 3.5 and 3.6MHz without the need of the tuner.

Not saying it's an efficient antenna for sure as it's tiny for 80m, but it's clearly radiating something. If anyone can tell me how a sort-of off-centre fed half wave for 30m can match up near perfectly on 80m and make QSOs whilst having the feedpoint indoors at the end of my bed, I am all ears, do enlighten me. It can't be the coax doing the radiating, you can see the very short length I used on the bed, plus a bit more in a choke loop.

Nice one Neal.
Yesterday was the worst day i have seen on the bands for a long time.
Wouldn't mind so much if i could see the Northern Lights lol.

Well done with the 80m contacts there Neal.  

Doesn't matter how you did it even if with a 'questionable' antenna setup!


It doesn't take you long to start exploring beyond conventional wisdom with antennas, (rule-of-thumb calculations and 'computer says no' modelling), unless you hold yourself back to such notions. You'd be amazed at what you can squirt RF out of!

My own bit of 'lawn-mower' lead and needs-must attitude with loft antennas has taught me a lot and after scrounging some more copper wire recently plan to lengthen it all further. It seems that the old adage from ancient Hams about "as much copper as you can as high as you can" seems to somehow fit especially with some ladder-line and matcher. Sure, they'll be those that argue 'efficiency' and FT8 contacts prove nothing but if it's keeping you happy with direct radio contacts, (rather than internet piped digital modes), who's to argue.

If stuck on the idea of resonance you'll find even 3/8ths of a wavelength will serve nicely and question it all when exploring other avenues of antenna lengths especially if you hit on a working non-resonant length one day.

Or you could try and figure out all that interaction in your house with radiators, reinforced lintels, electrical cables, plumbing, etc. and best of luck trying to model that lot!

There's a world beyond 50 ohm coax and a 'low' SWR Neal....and it's a fun place to be.


(Wait until you manage 160m and then find out every b*gger ignores you even though PSKReporter shows they can actually hear you! Top band operators are weird, but I'm still managing the odd confirmed contact.)

All the best mate and keep having fun with it,
Victor

Band's have been a bit rubbish recently Alan mate....

With as low as an S1 background noise I thought something was wrong with my radio!

Well done on those contacts.
Does not matter how you do it as long as contacts are made.

Nice to get you on 80m this morning Alan mate.  

(Hard work but worth sticking with it and yet my signals were being picked up in the USA!)

Yeh got my glasses on lol nudge nudge wink wink.

Ha! Ha!   
Yep, glasses will help mate.

The moment that sun came up I couldn't get out anywhere so was lucky to catch you. Be nice to get you on a few more bands.

on 40 now.
That G8oo station is hard to get don't think he likes m7.

I had a bit of a back and forth but no lunch with G8oo on 80m this morning but that was about sunrise when it all died off. (Same situation with a French station too.) I just take it as it comes Alan and never give it much thought otherwise.

The annoying ones are the constant report, report, report and you know full well they're picking you up but must be holding out for a better report from you. (That or they're 'stuck' on the same cycle?) A few skips about on the old TX frequency usually wakes up or finishes those.


All part of the fun.  

(I'm still stoked I got Trinidad & Tobago this morning but Cuba has been confounding me!)

Sorry to say but Cuba confirmed for me on 40/30/20/17/15/12m.
2 unconfirmed on 10m and 70cm but don't know where the last one came from lol.
You will get them my friend you will.

Had a few FT8 80m contacts yesterday evening. Nothing that will excite most of you being UK ones, a couple of Germans and one from the Nederlands. I was happy though (for a short time) as they were via another homemade antenna. I deployed a full size off centre fed dipole inside the house, low down, nothing in the loft. It stretched along the ground downstairs the length of the house, up the stairs into my bedroom where the feedpoint was on my bed, then out again bent around the other bedrooms.

Probably had a shockingly bad radiation pattern and a right sky warmer, but the SWR was almost perfect and it got me those few contacts. Then my better half came home, voiced her opinions of what she saw and how I had been spending my day (took me two hours alone to untangle that old wire I had found and test it to check there were no breaks), and made me take it down

She's just again left for work again. Really want to try and deploy a top band dipole inside the house, but I think that will need to wait and I will need to get on with house work today and just settle with trying to nab the odd QSO in between otherwise my evening is going to be an unpleasant.


On G8OO, don't give up if want him in the log. I do have him logged via M7TDV. I think just don't call him when he's calling 'DX', which he appears to most often.

Well done Neal, where there's a will there's a way!  

I've flustered family on several occasions with bits of wire meandering around the house. Usually I get the odd upward looking eyes with a knowing tut & snigger but I've usually got it all cleared up before it becomes an issue.


My lawnmower lead in the loft has bagged me much of Europe on 80m but nothing further afield, still much better than the magnetic loop or frame antenna managed though. (I did like the frame loop and was surprised at how well it worked.) My ATU experiments with a way too short dipole on 160m worked but never seemed to get many confirmations on top band so gave up.....plus I nicked the bits off the ATU to build something else!

Started looking at vertical solutions but gonna have to save me pennies up for bits if I want to try them plus figure out how I bury radials under a patio and pond!?!?!?

Oh, had Alan G8OO a couple of times now on 80m/40m and always grateful for a contact.


Keep playing with those wires Neal and let us know how you get on mate.

(Might be worth searching for frame antennas such as from SM0VPO and also solutions for the capacitor such as trimmed down lengths of coax which would be handy for fixed frequencies such as FT8 or even homebrew genius solutions like home made butterfly capacitors. )

New one for 80m FT8 90Watts to the Hustler

06:18 6W/IV3FSG IK14

Victor wrote:

(Might be worth searching for frame antennas such as from SM0VPO and also solutions for the capacitor such as trimmed down lengths of coax which would be handy for fixed frequencies such as FT8 or even homebrew genius solutions like home made butterfly capacitors. )

I mentioned in another thread recently that I picked up a late '70s manual ATU for next to nothing. The reason was to get hold of a decent butterfly cap I could use to experiment with. The one I manged to obtain I managed to fix up enough to get working, so I haven't stripped it down for the cap. As it can match my 10m delta loop to 160m and manage a few digital contacts with, I hope with some better wire creations connected to it I will manage a few more 80m & 160m contacts over the winter.

Ivy Mike wrote:

New one for 80m FT8 90Watts to the Hustler

06:18 6W/IV3FSG IK14

Well done Mike. Just as mentioned in the 40m thread, I haven't even heard them on 80m despite me starting to play with the lower bands a little more recently. 10, 12, 15 & 20m worked on FT4 10W, think that will be my lot. 15m was hell to complete yesterday, I experienced just about every bad digi radio practice by many operators that you can think of whilst trying. Felt more exhausted than satisfied once it was done.

Your vertical is definitely do the job for DX on the lower bands.

Country 187 overall,  38 on 80metres.

07:28 PJ5/SP9FIH FK87 Saba, St Eustatius