HF Contacts 3.5MHz

Been a while since I really had another go at FT8 tied up with my VHF forays and recent family matters.

80m was very active this morning so squirted some 10W of RF up my lawnmower lead tangled mess in the loft purporting as an antenna and manged a just outside Bedford into Bedford contact.....Pah! Pathetic....if it wasn't for the fact that it was Bedford, New Hampshire USA. 


05:51 W3UA FN42


I think that's my farthest 80m contact to date at some 3,245 miles (5,222km) distance but pleased my minimal setup actually made the trip. (He has a far better station than me and FT8 did help but it was great signals both ways with a smooth QSO cycle.)

It's another LOTW only operator (which I still haven't been assed to sort out finding it a faff) so won't be getting a confirmation but not that fussed knowing that I actually made it.

Not quite gonna catch up with you there Mike but damn good fun either way and finally broke my European barrier on 80m.

Well done Victor bet your well pleased.

I have him confirmed via LOTW last May.

Nice one there Victor.
They have all our places over there.
Funniest contact i had was many years ago on 11m.
Was talking to this guy called Ivan early one morning on ssb.
Asked him where he was he came back with "Anglesey".
Strange i thought never had him before but he said he had been on radio for years.
Well i now know that they have a place called Anglesey down under in Australia lol.

Hi Mike,

Oh yes, very pleased.  

I think my efforts with clearing up the shack both physically and electrically must have helped somewhat. I rarely used to hear the USA down on 80m and think I managed rarer -24dB PSK spots now and then but no contacts. This morning was a bored FT8 scan and surprised the Americans were flooding in so had to take a bash at it. Glad I did, +1dB for him and I managed a (fantastic for me) -14dB report.

Still grateful to you for pointing me in the right direction with regards mains filtering and along with the ferrites and new feeders it looks like my lawn mower lead antenna might just come up with the goods.

Looking forward to some more excitement and a reinvigorated interest back with FT8!


All the best to you,
Victor

Hi Alan,

Cheers mate, much appreciated.  

Oh yes, Britain's murky empirical past does tend to show itself up in place names around the world. I did check and found several 'Bedford' places in the USA.

Yep, Anglesey down in Victoria there and a super shot at you hitting them on 11m, must've been that early 80's cycle that was so good and not repeated as of yet.

Hope you and Linda are keeping well.
(How she doing with that new hip?)

Hip 100% sorted can't keep her down now.
She nagged me into going to see a doctor about my cough witch i did and they found out i had a dicky ticker while i was there lol.

Well done Victor. I worked W3UA last night... but not on 80m lol. Your setup is doing good sir.

strewth that's  not good look after yourself Alan

skyrider wrote:

strewth that's  not good look after yourself Alan

They are doing that for me.
Just another six pill's a day to take lol.
Sorry for the off topic.

Cheers Neal mate.  

Enjoying my lawnmower lead immensely.

Glad to hear Linda is well Alan mate but does sound like you should be looking after yourself too.

(I know what you mean having a big box of meds delivered every month for meself too!)

Delivered i wish lol.
They keep changing them so i have to go and collect about 3 times a week between the 2 of us.
Got to go after 4pm again today.

it will keep you active though Alan

17th Feb my best DX so far and new country for 80metres FT8.

19:56 XV9T OK33