Around 1pm (EDST) I headed over to Hutton Park to check out a 450 ohm Ladder line 6m J Pole that I used to use and stored it away. The reason I stored it away was that the BNC Connector on the end of it had been pulled off the end of the RG58 coax.
Well today I finally got around to fixing that antenna. I guess it had something to do with needing an portable antenna that I could use with my Yaesu VX-5 which is a 2m/70cm/6m 5w handheld radio.
I headed over to Hutton Park as I needed a place I could set it up without the usual prying eyes of the neighborhood kids and also as its going to be tested on a 20 foot Shakespere Wonder Pole (Crappy fishing pole to you outdoorsy types) I also needed a bit of room… Well my repair job was good as the antenna made contacts on 2m and 70cm on the local repeaters with a reasonable SWR according to the SWR meter on my Yaesu FT 817. It also showed a good SWR on 6m but there was no one around to give me a signal report…
After the testing was over I decided to put the VHF stuff to one side and I stretched out the Par QRP Multi Band End Fed antenna in a Sloper configuration aimed West/South West and listened around. I was hearing (just) station on 20 and 40m but something seemed wrong…
After checking the radio I found that somewhere along the line (yesterday maybee???) I had activated the ATT feature on the menu and after turning the attenunator OFF I was hearing quite a lot more than before…
I ended up on 14.342.5 which is the 20m HF Pack Calling frequency and yelled away…
Steven KD0ETC/p picked me up on the first call from Duluth Minnesota. Thats just under 800 miles according to Google Maps which ain’t too shabby for a QRP Radio and a chunk of wire.
Stevens rig was a Yaesu FT 857 with a long wire and he was sounding good… He gave me a 4/3 report which I was pleased with and I gave him an honest 5/7 which condidering he was using 95w more than I was explains the difference in the reports…
Shortly after that contact I looked up and the sky was clouding over… The weather person has been guessing that we might get wet tomorrow and I figured it was going to start early… I quickly packed up and headed home but…. as I walked in the door the sun came out and I could of stayed out longer… Go Figure…
Anyway an hour or so in the park is better than the same time not in the park so all was good… My hockey addiction is getting its fix as Boston is playing Washington this afternoon than then there is the Sens and New York and a Western Division game after that one so it will be a fun nite…
I might be heading out tomorrow if the weather permits….
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, Amateur Radio Portable Operations, KD0ETC, NHL Hockey Playoffs, Parr ends fed antenna, Yaesu FT 817, Yaesu FT 857, Yaesu VX5
October 18, 2012 at 9:46 pm |
[...] 17m…1738utc…KD0ETC…Steven… Duluth MN…795 miles 0r 155 miles/watt. The interesting thing about this call is that Steven was operating from a Picnic Table with a Yaesu FT 857 and an end fed long wire. In addition once I got home I found that after checking the log we had worked before. The only difference was that last time I was in Hutton Park rather than Weston Park… [...]