Month: December 2016

80 Meter Activity and Antennas

Eighty meters was pretty good at the QTH here last evening. Made contacts on JT9 up and down the East Coast. The QRN was minimal, and some stations were pretty strong, too. It’s the best I’ve seen it in quite a while.

It amazes me that my 31-foot wire vertical loads so well on 80 meters, too. The LDG tuner grinds a bit, but it does find a match. I don’t want to think about the efficiency of that antenna. The inverted-L is a disappointment though … nowhere near as good as the vertical and much noisier. I had the thought last night that maybe the coax is not up to snuff. It’s probably around twenty years old, even though it’s only been in use for maybe five years. I think I’ll substitute a new piece and see if that makes any difference.

I’ve got a new MFJ-1835 Cobweb antenna, still in the box. The weather hasn’t been cooperating since it arrived, and I’m hoping for some reasonable temperatures the week before Christmas, because I’m taking vacation then. I’ve read some pretty good reviews, and am really interested in experimenting with this antenna.

Hope everybody has a great Holiday season …

73 de Dick N4BC

ARRL 10M Contest

Interesting propagation on 10 meters this weekend … Saturday morning the western USA was coming in here pretty well, then the midwest opened up. I’ve never heard so many MN and WI stations :-). Ten was definitely open to somewhere most of the day. Lots of CW stations today, but not many SSB heard. About 5pm, the band started dropping out … still a few stations heard, but only the big guns.

Well, we’ll see what tomorrow brings. I’ll give it a few more hours after lunch tomorrow and see what’s going on.

Additional comments – Sunday: early afternoon brought a couple of CW contacts. One was from the local area (Virginia Beach) with a fluttery signal, and the other was a BIG signal from Tennessee. Not anything heard on SSB and later, the CW signals just disappeared. Poof!

Additional Additional comments – I ended up with 41 QSOs for a total score of 2774. I’m satisfied with that. I didn’t really hit it hard … only sporadic operating on Saturday, and then today wasn’t very good.

73 de Dick N4BC

Catching Up …

There’s not much new to report, especially on the operating front, but I do have some new antenna news. Yesterday, I ordered an MFJ-1835 Cobweb antenna, and it is due to be delivered by the big brown truck today from HRO. Can’t beat their shipping and service. There have been some pretty good reviews in the forums and on YouTube, so I decided to go ahead and pick up one.When I get it assembled and up in the air, I’ll report further.

Last night was the combined PARC/SPARK clubs Holiday Banquet at Angelo’s. and it was a really good turnout, at least from the SPARK membership. PARC only had a handful of members present. The food and fellowship was great, as was the service, and the XYL even found someone she knew there to talk to.

73 & Happy Holidays de Dick N4BC