Since I have had the use of an IC-746PRO recently, it’s been easier for me to work SSB. The reason for this is the internal automatic antenna tuner. Even though my dipole’s cut for the CW portion of the band, the antenna tuner provides a near perfect match in the phone band, without my having to twiddle any knobs.
I’ve made a few contacts on 40m SSB, but operation there is much different than on 40m CW. For one thing, there are a lot of nets on 40m phone. In addition to the old nets, such as EASTCARS and MIDCARS, there are a bunch of ragchew nets, such as the Supper Club. I guess this is understandable; nets are a lot easier to conduct on phone. There are also a lot of informal nets. That is, there are groups who concentrate around a common frequency.
What you don’t find are a lot of people calling CQ. I’ve been tuning around for about 20 minutes this morning, and haven’t heard a single call. I tried calling myself a couple of times, but didn’t get a response. I guess all the operators are either on the nets or talking with their buddies.
That’s quite different, of course, from 40m CW. You always hear ops calling CQ, and this morning, I called CQ twice and got two responses on the first call. Guess I need to join one of these nets.
LINK: For a large list of nets, see the AC6V HF Nets page.
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