What the heck is that thing on 14.220 MHz? It is LOUD in the Fort Worth area.
Listened to the pileups working S50O while driving back from Houston yesterday. Also listened to the pileup on JW/OZ1HPS while driving home from work yesterday.
I am off for a few days. I picked up some parts at Fry's in Houston to try and finish up the work on the Hi-Q. I have some ferrites due in tomorrow from MFJ (yes, Charlie, I know you know you sent them but I also know I didn't get them) and I am hoping I can beat back my RF feedback problems and get the antenna tunable from the operating position. Then I can start dealing with frequency range issues, whip length, tophat or no tophat, and so forth.
The FCC is corrupt.
Just like I have said in previous entries.
They are in the pocket of big money interests.
That explains the BPL travesty.
But Congress is catching on, and they're not happy about it.
If you are using Mozilla to view my phphamlog, I have added some features to the log display.
If you are using Internet Explorer, well, why? But if you are, you can't see the new features because of buggy code in IE and I don't have the patience right now to chase them down and kill them.
Okay, it wasn't a very big bug as it turns out. It's swatted now.
Put everything together, although in a temporary fashion, and retuned the antenna from 20 to 40 meters. I ran out of time, light, and patience before I made any contacts, but that can wait for tomorrow.
The main things I learned are that the tuning is very touchy and has to be jogged back and forth to find the low spot; and that on 40 I have to go to the Lo-Z tap on the Unum. This was an expected result so I take it to mean everything is working.
Now I have to figure out a way to mount the switch in a permanent location near the radio so everything can be in its final place.
I have finished the antenna motor control. A miniature DPDT switch, a cute little project box, and some 22 AWG 2-pair cable from Fry's made everything come together so I can tune from the low end of 80 to 10 meters. A tune controller from Better RF puts the whole package together.
I have a 72-inch steel whip from MFJ and a 48-inch steel whip salvaged from my 15 meter Iron Horse. The long whip tunes 80 through 15, and the short one gives me 17 through 10 (for when the sunspots return).
I have worked a number of stations on 20, both CW and SSB, with the Hi-Q before I got it powered, and a couple of days ago I worked Don, AB8EL in Ohio on 40.
I called LU7YS in Patagonia on 30 but he couldn't hear me.
Tonight I took it down to the bottom of 80 meters to see what I could do. On 80 the resonant point is razor sharp, maybe +/- 3 KHz, so you have to be right on the spot for it to work. I worked Duarte, 6H1IM in Uruapan, Mexico, on 3533 KHz with a 599 report.
This was the first 80 meter CW contact for me since just after I got my general class in 1964. A 43 year hiatus from 80 meters.
But now I'm back.
Made my 1st ever contact on 17 meters last Saturday - a CW contact with JA7COK in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. Made my 2nd ever contact on 17 meters this morning while driving around - PA3GSU in Gerkesklooster, Netherlands. Looks like 17 may be the sweet spot for the Hi-Q, and no RF gets into the AM-FM radio, a big problem on 20 and 40 meters.
But yesterday on 15 I also had QSOs with HI3TEJ in Puerto Plata, DR, and EA8/DL3FCG in Tenerife, Canary Islands. So the higher bands are starting to show some promise, and I am anxious for the openings to come.
A ham I worked a few months back has received an enforcement letter from the FCC.
Update: He has been cleared.
The higher bands are starting to show considerable activity, with openings into Europe before noon, and openings into Asia and South America after noon. I went out to the truck at lunch to listen, and worked Jean, F8EZE, on 17 meter CW, and then Paul, I4ABF on 15 meter SSB.
I also heard TI8II (very loud here), EI3IO (nice rhythm to that call), and LZ26ZA (that is copied correctly, it's a special event station in Bulgaria).
Since I got the Hi-Q working in September, I have worked 7 states and 16 countries, not including the 30-odd states from QSO parties which I don't put in my main logs ( but do upload to LoTW). Of the last 20 contacts in phphamlog, 15 are non-US.
Taking K0BG's advice to heart, I have ordered this bonding braid so I can bond all the metal panels of the truck together. This should improve noise and antenna efficiency, making my little shack on wheels into a formidable communications system.
Or, if not, a very expensive communications system, at least.