40m

Today I had some success operating 1W on 40m.

At 1330UTC, I made a handful of contacts, and got a strong -05 report. I even got a POTA in FL.

I visited French Creek State Park (US-1355).

I deployed my 40-meter EFHW, strung up into a convenient tree. I operated with low power, typically between 1-2 watts, on the 10-meter, 40-meter, and 20-meter bands.

I primary operated FT8, and I also attempted some PSK, but no one responded.

Today I experimented with building a 64:1 unun for an 80-meter EFHW.

My initial attempt involved 3 primary / 24 secondary windings, but I quickly found that this took up too much space on the small toroid I was using.

After some adjustments, I settled on a 2 primary / 16 secondary windings, adding a 100pF capacitor. This configuration was inspired by resources like KM1NDY’s DIY linked EFHW 64:1 antenna guide.

I’m now successfully running my home EFHW antenna on 40 meters without needing a tuner. On 17 meters, the SWR is a bit high, so I engage the tuner for that band.

This setup reminds me a lot of my previous 71-foot random wire antenna with a 9:1 balun. I’m noticing a significant increase in the number of signals I’m receiving, which suggests this new EFHW might be a considerable improvement over my old 107-foot EFRW.

I made my first trip to US-1426, Swatara State Park for a quick activation. I stretched the 41-foot EFRW to a tree right from the car window, and made 13 FT8 contacts on 40m.