It has been a long dry spell around here for QSOs lately. I have just been too busy to get on the air and when I do the band is in pretty bad shape. The poor little HW-8 and it's two watts have not been really successful lately.
My friend Mike W9ODX over at the "Adventures in CW" blog has been having success with his rain gutter antenna and waiting to get on the 40m band until after 9PM, and he's been making a lot of contacts.
My friend Mike W9ODX over at the "Adventures in CW" blog has been having success with his rain gutter antenna and waiting to get on the 40m band until after 9PM, and he's been making a lot of contacts.
So tonight I took his advice and I waited until about 10PM EDT and fired up the HW-8 on about 7120 Khz and started calling CQ, I think I sent my CQ's out about 4 maybe 5 times, when I was answered by Gary K9NSS over in Marion Illinois, about 210 miles from here. Interesting to note that in 1982 F4 tornadoes hit the city and caused extensive damage killing 10 and sending over 200 to the hospital. Marion is located in the deep southern tip of Illinois. Gary was running his Icom 765 at 75 watts and we traded 599 RST reports.
Here's the city in 1910, thanks to Wikipedia.
It was really great to QSO again! I just bought a Alex Loop and I am anxious to try it with the HW-8 from my back patio. Stay tuned!
Best 73 de KB9BVN
Nice post Brian, thanks for the update. Good luck with your loop!
ReplyDelete