Top band ft4/8 duck

At last i have broken my top band duck on FT8.
Only French stations but no star yet 2 stations 1 does qrz and 1 doesn't.
FR5RRS 23.04 UTC on 1.840/2 (my screen shows 840 qrz shows 842).

Nice one.

QRZ should show your TX frequency 1.840 + how far you were up the passband, in your case 2KHz.

What antenna are you using, been mulling over sticking something up but not much space.

Antenna is an endfed 67ft with a 110uH coil then 6 or 7ft of wire to add the 80m band.
The un-un is a 5:1.
Strange thing is i don't need any tuner on top band well most bands are under 2 with no tuner but 160m is 1to 1.2swr.
The main wire the 67ft part is a coated stainless steel picture hanging kit from Amazon comes at 25m with some loop fittings and crimps for £9.99 delivered.

Well done with your antenna efforts on 160m Alan.  


I wasn't having much luck with my 44 foot doublet even with my new homebrew ATU and recently shoved the missus into the loft to add another 11 feet either side. (Bless her, she's a star!)

Now I can tame it with my old Pi-match as well as receive PSK reports from further afield on 160m but it's early days yet as it's only just gone up. (Blown away with the better 80/40/30/20m performance though!  )

You never know, with us both "growing" our antennas we may manage that voice QSO yet!


Nice pointer from Mike on the reported frequency and missed by many. 

Another tip I use to aid my old FT757 is to dial the VFO slightly up or down the designated frequency bringing the low or high transmissions into my audio passband. Works a treat as the WSJT-X software doesn't care where you are (except for CAT control) and saves on that mid-frequency cluster cacophony. Then again I don't have a fancy radio like you Alan.

(Been trying to get my old friend to give FT8 a go on his ancient Yaesu FT101 but he's adamant it won't work.)


Have fun mate.

Thanks Mike and Victor.
It makes sense the frequency thing i never thought about it that way.
Victor
The antenna thing has me baffled don't know if you saw the post i put in that balun ? thread.
Don't understand why or how it is working like it is.
It's the same 67ft with the 110uH coil and 6 or 7ft of wire added to get 80m but with a 5:1 un-un  instead of the 49:1.
Now all bands are under 2 swr many at around 1 to 1.4 but top band is 1 to 1 and all with no tuner at all.
Regarding PSK i was spotted in the USA just after midnight with a -18 but no contact in fact not many stations on 160 but then i don't trust PSK as i have just had a contact into Ireland but no spot showing over there.

Victor
This is for Teresa.

Ha! Bless you mate.

She is a star and does so well to look after me and my needs. 
Just as well because if I'd been a pet I'd have been put down before now! (Or someone would have at least put a wheel on my gammy leg!  )


I must've missed your antenna posting but glad you're experiencing first hand that SWR is a different kettle of fish than expected. Impedance, resonance, non-resonance, etc. all add up to become the fun that can be had with antennas.  

Oh, not everyone is on PSK either by choice or not setting up the software for it. I set it up from the start and often leave my radio running to at least report signals which may help others out. Digi-modes get some slamming but they're also useful for antenna experiments, propagation watching and a whole host of other radio weirdness like 'long path' and single direction propagation. Greyline and skip distance plus dead zones are fun to watch too giving a greater understanding of such radio phenomenon. You'll also notice the radio population centres around the globe with North America, Europe and Japan always lit up as well as how Australia is usually only lit up by the coast lines.

I've learned a lot by using it......even if some declare it as "Not proper radio with talking and stuff."

Then of course there's the obvious..... It makes for a healthy log book! 

Alan Pilot wrote:

Antenna is an endfed 67ft with a 110uH coil then 6 or 7ft of wire to add the 80m band.
The un-un is a 5:1.
Strange thing is i don't need any tuner on top band well most bands are under 2 with no tuner but 160m is 1to 1.2swr.
The main wire the 67ft part is a coated stainless steel picture hanging kit from Amazon comes at 25m with some loop fittings and crimps for £9.99 delivered.

Ok Alan interesting.
I have tried an inverted L with coils but could not tune it so gave up.

Was going to try a long wire and counterpoise, think I can squeeze in near 90feet
in a sort of inverted V. Trouble is I have a lot metalwork already that has an influence.

Mine is just over 73ft i think lol.
It is like a flat L on a slight slope going up from the un-un.
Starts around 10ft agl and the other end is about 20ft.
Been playing around with it for a few weeks now after i started knocking the internet off on the 40m band.
Originally i had the UKantennas 10/80m shortened version up and the SWR had gone up on all bands.
Turned out the un-un was the cause no idea why but after building my own 49:1 um-un and and swapping them over the SWR came back down no idea what wend wrong as the old one looks like new inside it did have a drop of water in it but can't see any damage or corrosion.
While i was trying to sort this out i bought a NANOvna and figured out how to use it well some parts of it lol.
I had also done a lot of reading so i decided i would have a go at making my own antenna spurred on by Victors exploits ?? and got it all working but not on top band.
So the next alteration was the un-un and had read about the 5:1 so thought i would give one a try.
Station commander Linda is happy as well she can now come out into the garden and not have to watch out for wires garrotting her llol happy wife happy life.