Had a fairly busy morning, so didn't get on the air until we went out to have sandwiches up on Dinas mountain. I took the little Quansheng UV-5K with the CW firmware installed, along with the micro paddle. A few CQs on both 144.050 and 144.300 but no luck on this occasion. It's a good take off from there, so it should have worked up and down the Welsh coast and across to Ireland. Perhaps next time!
Back home and in the late afternoon, had a bit of a tune around 10 and 15m. Had a nice chat with Suad IT9/DK6XZ who I often work in the CWT sessions. I didn't realise but Suad remotes to Sicily from Germany and he was telling me that he had some latency with his remote audio - something I see on my remote system from time to time. Also worked W1AW/0 on 15m and Rich W3RJ on 10m.
Spent a little time checking that the remote to the TS-590SG as well as the FT-847 is all working as that will be in use over the next few days. When I operate remotely, I can only use 100W as I can't switch bands on the amps remotely. Checking it all out this evening, I was pleased to work XQ6CF on 20m, using 100W. That's sometimes a tricky QSO - so I was pleased when Wlad came back straightaway.
The PC running WSJT-X for the FT-847 (2m) and FTDX-10 (HF) seemed to have got in a bit of a mess this morning and wouldn't talk to the FTDX-10. I think it was because I had a go at using WSJT-X Improved v3.1.0 the other evening to try FT2. Version 3.0.0 was confused because it didn't know about the last mode that was used, FT2. A reboot cured it (though going back into V3.1.0 and changing to FT8 might have done the trick too).
Is Super Fox and Hounds making a comeback? It does seem to be working better than when I first tried it a year or so ago. Anyway, CY0S seem to be using it and I was pleased to manage a 10MHz SFH QSO with them - satisfying as they were mostly working North America, although Dave G7RAU worked them the same time as me.
TX5EU coming through nicely on 20m CW at the same time too, but a big pileup and I can't really be bothered with all of that! Would be nice to work them on some band or mode!
Nice to find Ian G3WVG, operating as 3B8VV from Mauritius on 28MHz without too much of a pileup. Signals weren't strong although they seemed to be getting louder as it was around sunset in Mauritius.
The sked with Roger GW5NF was moved to today. Had a nice chat and then was called at the end by Roger GW3UEP in Ceredigion - another very pleasant QSO. When we finished, John GW4SRE called GW3UEP. I remembered John from Swindon days, so called in and had a quick chat. John is mostly on AM these days, with vintage gear.
Called CY0S on 20m SFH for a while but didn't get anywhere! It would have been a new band country I think. Tuned down the band and worked CO2OQ on CW running 5W and then WB0RLJ in Nebraska on a POTA trip.
Power interruption from 0930 to 1330 today, so not much radio planned until later!
Had a bit of a play in the 13z CWT as the power came back early. Conditions on the higher bands seemed poor - next to nothing on 15m. Nice to catch Jim K6AR on 20m though. Knowing Jim, that was probably long path! 15m brightened up in the late afternoon;AI5IN in Texas and Joe AI0Y in North Dakota.
Nice sunny day, so mostly outside doing mowing and strimming!
The 19z CWT was better than expected with some some west coast stations workable on 15m - curiously I seemed to be louder there than some of the US stations calling them. KH7X was around too, but in Arizona and not Hawaii! Another interesting QSO was with Adrian KO8SCA. I presume he's on the boat back from Bouvet so he'd have been remoting to his home station from the Southern Ocean.
Interesting to hear TX5EU on 15m around 2200z - they had a big US pileup, so didn't make any headway with that. Also CY0S opened up on 40m around the same time.
Propagation must be a little better this morning - the 10.101MHz RTTY was audible on the ATS-Mini.
Didn't get on to the air until I was back from Welsh in the afternoon. Conditions didn't seem great, but one or two interesting QSOs on the higher bands; FG/F5HRY on 24MHz, LB5SH/MM coming back from Bouvet to Cape Town on 28MHz.
I installed the latest WSJT-X Improved with FT2 mode added. Made a couple of QSOs, the first being J69DS. I don't really like the idea of FT2 as it throws away so much sensitivity, but the QSOs are certainly quick.
During the winter when the winds are high, I use a shorter vertical than the DX Commander Signature 9. Although the Signature 9 would probably cope - it flexes hugely and is anxiety inducing to watch in a storm. So, a couple of years ago, I decided to build an antenna which would cope with all but the worst winter storms.
I had a fibreglass pole which I could use and I decided to try running quarter wave lengths of wire up the outside of the pole, taping them on. I started off with quarter waves for 10, 15 and 17m. I used the lengths from the DX Commander User Guide on page 8 - I used the same lengths as on the Signature 9. Next, I added a wire for 20m and that too worked alright.
I wondered whether I could do something for 30m. as that's quite a useful band for working SOTA stations as well as DX! The element length for 30m was a bit long at around 7m and if I extended the pole to that length, it would start to be quite whippy in a high wind (which I didn't want as that was why I built the aerial in the first place!). So I decided to stick with the pole length of around 5m and run the 30m element back down the other side of the pole.
To my surprise this worked! The SWR is a little high at around 1.5:1 but it's quite useable. Does it radiate? It does! It's fine for semi-local QSOs around Europe and just recently I worked J51A with it. It does struggle on real DX contacts though, but it's better than nothing.
The only band I haven't mentioned is 12m. The curious thing is that one day I tried it to see what the SWR would be like and to my surprise it was ok and it's capable of working DX.
So, there are 5 lengths of wire on the pole. The pole uses plastic clips to stop the sections slipping down inside each other (DX Commander sell these). The wires are simply taped onto the pole. I crimped tags onto the ends of each element and clamp these onto to a bolt, where the feed can be attached. The pole sits on the same ground post as the DX Commander Signature 9 and uses the same set of radials.
I'm really pleased with how well this works and how it keeps me on the air in all but the worst of the winter storms.
I do want to credit Callum at DX Commander for the inspiration to build this really useful aerial. Thanks Callum!
Conditions definitely not great today - I checked the RTTY on 10101 on my little ATS-Mini around 0800 and it was barely audible! That's how bad it was.
Spent a little time revamping the 'storm' vertical as yesterday I'd spotted that one of the elements had become disconnected. I reworked the feed to clean it up and hopefully make it a bit more robust.
Conditions definitely poor! Spent a little while calling 3B8VV (G3WVG) on 15m for a while but didn't seem to get anywhere in the afternoon. Managed a few VE & W stations on 20m in the evening, but decidedly hard going. Worked PY1KO on 20m too, who was curiously fluttery - odd, given the path.
And another surprise - just before closing, I heard Darrel AA7FV on 18MHz CW. Darrel's in Arizona, so it was unusual that he was coming through, but there were practically no other signals on the band, apart from FT8.
Got on for the last 20 mins or so of the Commonwealth Contest - nice to work the usual VK suspects as well as Tony ZL2AGY. Conditions quite fluttery, although VL6T (VK6VZ) was strong with little flutter.
Bands seemed quite poor after we got back from a Mother's Day lunch up at Tafarn Sinc (car park very muddy and we got stuck and had to be pulled out!). 18MHz was interesting though and made a few nice QSOs including FG/F5HRY and then a nice chat with Peter W0SA in Minnesota. Peter's a retired doc from the Mayo Clinic and was running about 500W to a 43ft vertical.
Evening tune around was mostly on 20m. FH/UR9IDX was a bit weak and watery, but completed. Nice to work WB0RLJ from another POTA activation and Cathy W4CMG operating for the WWA-YL award.
Out for most of the day at Sadwrn Siarad (Welsh class - 'Speaking Saturday'!) but got back to find 3Y0K now QRT.
Commonwealth Contest going on, although conditions not that great - but always nice to work old friends in this one.
Particularly good to work 3B8XF, 5Z4VJ, VK6T and VK2BJ on 40m. Heard Don 5X1DF on both 20 and 40m but couldn't work him. It sounded like he may have had a local noise problem.
Fun to catch Dave VE3KG operating VA3RAC and move from 40 to 80 and 20m. 20m was the hardest!
Had the customary go at 3Y0K on 10m FT8 for 20 minutes before lunch. They actually heard me this time, but sadly on the move to the 'Fox' frequency, they didn't and the QSO was not completed. Shortly after, signals started to fade, so despite some more calls, no luck. That might be the last chance to work them on 10m, as they're dismantling the station over the weekend and we're out and about over the weekend. Not to worry - very happy to have worked them 3 times - 10m would have been a bonus!
Well! It seems I was pessimistic. I did some mowing and trimming this afternoon and came in about 1530. Got up to the shack and after a bit of a tune around, I noticed that 3Y0K were on 10m FT8 again. Not so strong, but working more west Europeans, so I thought I'd give it a go. After about 15 minutes of calling they came back to me. The QSO was a bit touch and go and when the TX jumped down to 435Hz I was sure I'd lost it, but to my enormous surprise, the next period they came back with RR73. So, that's something about Fox and Hounds I didn't know about. It looks like if you can't get through on the nominated frequencies, it tries something else. Clever! So I'm delighted. 40m or 30m would make me very happy - but 4 bands is way more than I expected.
Not sure if it was significant, but on my way back in from the mowing, I put the big DX Commander up. Perhaps that helped!
Couple of nice QSOs in the evening; 3B8XF on 17m and N2KW/VP9 on 20m.
And completely unexpected, just turning around one 40m before turning off, found JX7DFA calling CQ DX (I figured I was just about DX to him!) A bit of a patchy QSO, but a new country nevertheless! QRZ.COM says the last activity was in 2002! I'm sure I read something about some upcoming activity from here, so maybe it's ok.
Another half hour calling 3Y0K on 10m FT8 - still no QSO! They came up well in strength at one point.
ZS6NK and ZS6OB both heard on 6m FT8 around lunchtime.
On 12m CW, it was nice to work Nigel G3TXF operating as 3B8XF. Nigel will be taking part in the Commonwealth Contest this coming weekend.
Allen N2KW is in Bermuda for the Commonwealth Contest and it was nice to work him as N2KW/VP9 on both 12 and 15m this afternoon.
Could hear Nigel on 30m around 2200z but he had a JA pileup and the short vertical doesn't work that well. Wind should be dropping tomorrow, so hopefully will have the big vertical back up. Nice to work VP2MAA on 20m though.
