I setup at US-1418 for an activation. I tried to setup the 40m EFHW in a nearly vertical configuration, but my throw wasn’t high enough, so I went for a vertical 25-foot Rybakov instead. I used my 4:1 balun.
I got my activation working 10M and 15M FT8.
I went to the 985 breakfast and chatted lots of Vic and Jerry.
After breakfast, I hit the parks for some POTA. I started at Middle Creek where I tested my EFHW vs the Tactical Delta Loop.
Next, I setup at State Game Land 156 down the road with the telescoping antenna for a CB walkie talkie.
I encountered a
bug using the ATU
on R1CBU 0.29.2.
I had lots of tunings very near each other,
so it switched a lot.
It queries and uses the nearest tuning to current frequency,
so lots of close tunings will cause thrashing as you move.
I cleared the atu table in params.db
to alleviate the problem for a bit.
The rope came undone at far end of my EFRW. I had to fish it back down with a wire hook stuck in a fishing pole.
The SWR was a bit high, and I found broken wires in 9:1 balun, so I stripped the wires and reassembled it.
With the antenna working again, I contacted New Caledonia on 10M FT8 with 8W.
I activated US-9719 Susquehanna Riverlands. The tempurature was decent, though a little bit of a mist. I got lots of practice throwing very high in the tree. I used all my throw line to hoist my EFHW into the air. Some people lingered to watch while I struggled to get just the right branch.
I found a large section of coax was bad, so had to scramble a little to get enough cable. I worked 20M to get 2 CW park-to-park contacts and 28 more FT4 contacts
I watched a video about NVIS NVIS achieves 75-90 degree take-off, very vertical, and about a 400-mile range. It can get you over obstacles. It’s most effective on 40m and 80m.
To build it, mount a dipole 1/8 wavelength above ground, horizontal. Add a reflector almost on the ground, 5% longer, to keep the ground from absorbing the signal.
I did a bit of the ARRL 10m Contest all in CW. I keyed with my 3D-printed iambic paddle but relied on the X6100 to decode incoming signals for me.
I made 13 contacts across 10 states/provinces in 4 ITU zones. I used the Web2Cabrillo website to type up my handwritten logs and produce a Cabrillo file to submit to the contest.
I found the brand new wsjtx-improved available on my Debian unstable system. It’s the next beta plus some UI enhancements including filters, color, etc, better location labels.
