HAMming it Up

On Saturday I felt in need of a change of scene Ham radio wise. I had been working on VHF and above for quite a while and decided to go back to HF working. Looking at activity reports on the 'net it was obvious VHF conditions were poor but HF was alive with contacts. I retrieved my HF transmitter from its resting place in the utility room. I really must get my aerial cables identified as to which goes to what aerial. It took at least an hour to find the correct one. The transmitter is the bottom one in this photo.



There should have been lots of activity on the 10 metre band but I was receiving a fat zero so I changed to 30m - the magic band. Lots of signals received and plenty of contacts made using the digital mode FT8. I even managed to contact a country I had never worked before. I had received signals from an operator in China but initially couldn't make contact. About half an hour after that he called me and a two way contact was made. That made my day.

I use a web site (pskreporter) to see who is receiving my signals and my 70-75 Watts of RF seemed to be travelling well.



At one stage a Radio Amateur in Ghana reported receiving my signals but so far that is another country I have yet to make a two way contact with.