I've been extremely busy this month and therefore no postings for a long time; but I'm now happy to report that I can now work "all bands", since I've made some changes to the "shack"; and although my "new set up" is very "crude", it seems to be working well.
I still choose to keep my station "portable" for outdoor excursions and for this reason, I'll have to tolerate a rather unorthodox routing of a 50 ft. random wire. I've kept the Isotrons for 40 and 20 meters, but after doing a little experimenting, I've discovered that if I keep the "wire" stretched out and away from potential "rf sponges" it works pretty well!
I've been having a fun time with this, and it still leaves me with the option of being portable. I've put an antenna switch on the table and ran the 50 ft random wire through an old tuner.
My favorite band has now become 30 meters where I've found several QRP operators. Just this evening, I worked a "special event station" operating from an old Navy LST. Here's the link to the ship.... LST Memorial 325. The really neat thing about this contact was that I actually operated from this ship a few years ago when it was docked on the Ohio River. It's a long story, but an interesting one; N8ZYA's QRP Radio Blog: Search results for LST
How well is it working?
I now have two more "1000 MPW" contacts into Bulgaria and Slovenia. The needles on the tuner say I'm putting out a little over 3 watts. I've also worked stations in Poland, the Czech Republic and Cuba.
I'm not going to have a lot of time for blogging the next couple of months, but for all those in Eastern Europe, listen for me on the standard QRP frequencies on 30 and 17 meters. The random wire, although not very sightly, seems to be doing a great job!
6 comments:
Congrats on your new antenna/station set-up, John. I've found 17M to be a very good DX band though it can open late and close early. I don't have an antenna up for it, just the 20 meter Par.
Be well and hope to catch you on or near 14.060.
73 Dick
Hi John, nice to see how you put up your indoor antenna. Great news that it works so well. One day I hope to work you on one of the bands. Good luck, take care, 73 Paul
Hello Dick,
Just when you least expect it; I'll catch you there some day! Hihi
BTW/ What GMT is best for you?
Hello Paul,
I'm always listening and hope to work you soon.
John, I have observed the best time for hearing east coast stations is around 11PM here or 5PM your time. I always hang around 14.060 plus/less. Worked a QRP guy in MI there last night.
Hello Dick,
I'll do my best to hear you around that time. 72's
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