Piero EA3IPL
Can hear and be heard strong on 20m band right now with #ft8 across Europe with very short skip distance (just did very very close QSOs). But it doesn't seem to be the right time for #DX #hamradio #propagation #amateurradio #20mband #digitalmodes
Nov 10, 2022 at 10:18amWeb
Show threadRaeNov 10, 2022
@ea3ipl Awww, not being heard in AU tho :( Was gonna fire up the radio. 10 & 15m have been good for AU-EU about 4-5 hours earlier than now some days mind.
Show threadPiero EA3IPLNov 10, 2022
@vk2gpu well, it looks like people with big cannons are seeing eachother EU-AU on 10m at least judging from reports on my gridsquare, but I don't have the best of the setups right now... :(
Show threadRaeNov 10, 2022
@ea3ipl The higher bands are defo livening up. A few months ago 10m was completely dead. I've been tempted to build a yagi for 10m to make the most of the band, but it's still a bit cumbersome to setup heh
Show threadRaeNov 10, 2022
@ea3ipl I'm setup for 80-40-20-15-10, but until recently mostly just used 40 (wasn't licensed for 20 until a few weeks ago)
Show threadPiero EA3IPLNov 10, 2022
@vk2gpu I have a vertical that works decently well on 20m and higher as a 1/4 wave + a loading coil that gets me on 40m, somehow. For some reason I can't get it well tuned for 10m and I think I am missing out a bit, with everybody talking about extreme DXs on 10m
Show threadRaeNov 10, 2022
@ea3ipl Surprised the G90 doesn't manage it, could always try stringing around 2.5m of wire off the feedpoint up into the air?
Show threadRaeNov 10, 2022
@ea3ipl (Note: I have never tried what I guess is a "fan vertical" at that point, but it might just do)
Show threadPiero EA3IPLNov 10, 2022
@vk2gpu yes, that would be a good option. I have been toying around with the idea of building a simple EFHW or a random wire for the bands I can’t cover well right now. Just need to do some research on which kind of impedance transformer I would need. The internal tuner of the G90 should do the rest
Show threadRaeNov 10, 2022
@ea3ipl Random wire, 9:1 IIRC! It annoys me a bit that it isn't reaaally a "random" length, there's specific lengths you want to hit all the bands. So it's random* wire. *for some values of random.
Show threadJeremy_N1ZZZNov 10, 2022
@vk2gpu @ea3ipl I agree. To tune a random wire, you need a wide ranging tuner or autocoupler. Even those don't like certain 1/2 wave lengths.
Show threadRaeNov 10, 2022
@N1ZZZ @ea3ipl At some point I need to give a proper random wire a try, I expect after you slap the unun on there a G90 will tune it to anything. Great for portable if that is the case!
Show threadRaeNov 10, 2022
@N1ZZZ @ea3ipl Last time I used a random wire antenna I was using a manual tuner on a friend's QRP radio, a bit more finicky but still works :)
Show threadJeremy_N1ZZZNov 10, 2022
@vk2gpu @ea3ipl I use one on the ship. I use a icom AH-4 coupler to tune it at the feed point. Using a manual tuner at the radio usually means very high line losses, unless the run is short.