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.