I knew this SC min would be bad, but I've been on since 1966, and this min is just plain horrific: really high QRN ---and really poor prop. Pretty much across the board 160 thru 10. I thought I could be patient but 2 more years of this and I'm gonna take up ship-in-a-bottle making and look like this!!
I just bought a T2FD - does that count? Or does it just count as an air-cooled dummy load? If I'm lucky I'll be able to put it up the coming days.
I blame it on global warming.. Quick someone cq Greta Thunberg Edit: don't call her.. next she'll blame Hams operating legal limit.. On a serious note since I jumped back into this hobby 3 years ago, I have over 2800 confirmed contacts and worked 200 countries. Keep in mind that I only had an hour here and there to be on the radio since I am not yet retired. Most contacts were made on wire antennas. The rest were made on homebrew antennas.
Will we reached the all-time record, today in 2019 there has been 272 days without sunspots. But don't worry about it because good operators are making DX contacts everyday even on a long path. With the sun conditions it might be a good time to put up some good 160 to 40 meter antennas!! The guys that are making all the DX contacts now, did that a few years ago! They learned something after the 2008 year that had no sun spots for 268 days. And look at the following year 2009 and guess how many days without sunspots?? Then you can get excited or not, about all these so-called expert predictions.
Hmm.. Condx were a bit lite for many locations, but not dismal.. DxMap for 10m with 15 minute filter selected: 15Dec2019@ 1550 zulu... Also, Friday after the start of the contest was good for hours to 7 land from the SFO area.
I cannot say that all is bad .... Maybe for voice. So what you do is you adapt; you adapt what you do and you adapt your practises. Yes I despise working digital - but I have made over 11,000 FT8 contacts and 194 DXCC countries in the last 19 months (with a 70% LOTW confirmation rate). No I do not sit hour after hour making contacts ... I sit while doing other things and writing ... No I do not have towers, beams or amplifiers - just a barefoot FT-991; I just use an 80m doublet fed with 300-ohm primarily - assisted recently with a Werner Wulf 5-band vertical of late that I have been refurbishing and re-engineering. Sometimes it has involved repeated contacts also with a number of "regulars" that you see on on bands to open up bands ... contrary to this antisocial "worked-before-ism" that is waving through AR. AR involves watching propagation. It involves listening. It involves calling CQ ... It involves adapting to the situations ! Yes for me it has involved using Digital modes when the passion here is for SSB voice.
As a newcomer to the HF bands (17 months), I have no experience of any previous solar cycles but for me in ZS land, propagation seems to be quite good. I have logged over 4000 SSB DX contacts since the beginning of November this year, about 75% on 20m and the rest on 17M and 15M. I am extremely lucky that I have a good DX qth and that I can spend a lot of time on the radio so I am daily very active, particularly in our evening times. Those factors obviously count a great deal. There are only a few days I can remember where the bands seemed to be truly dead, (one of them being yesterday), when lots of CQ calls brought in only a handful of contacts. My sense is that there are a many listeners on the bands who choose not to call CQ but to rather respond to those who do. I am not active on the lower bands so I can't comment on conditions down there.
I tried the 10m contest. 8 contacts. I’m a new ham. I was thinking, man I hope they’re all not like this.
Don't get discouraged Its like being in an amazing national park -- but in the middle of a cold rainy day. The good news is that when things start getting better--in 2022-- the fun is not gradual. It comes back on big time
Balanced Termination, Folded Dipole. Rebirth of a proven old design. It can be made resinate at the frequency that it is made for without using the magic box. The original design can loose up to 30% of the RF power that is converted to heat in the resistor. I am sure that this has been improved upon by now. It is a general-purpose shortwave antenna developed in the late 1940s by the United States Navy. I have read about this antenna but have no experience with one. I would think it would be better than having a non resinate antenna hooked to a magic box. You will need to let us know how it works out for you. 73,
If able, put up a 70 foot tower with a mono band 20 meter yagi. Even a 5 element is not a big antenna. Do this and you will work the world almost every day with bully signals going both ways. The DX will carry a conversation because they will actually be able to hear you. The 5 by 9's and 73 are so prevalent because the DX station cannot hear you well enough to copy more than that. Such a relatively small HF antenna as described changes the hobby completely. Less antenna means you will be having to live with the conditions as they are for several years and perhaps longer. Build an effective tower and antenna able to deliver a signal to a great distance and the fun of ham radio multiplies greatly.
