Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of operating. As I’ve said before, I try to make at least three contacts per day, but lately, it’s been more like four or five. Last night, I made seven.
I started out on 10m. I don’t really have a 10m antenna, but my 30m dipole loads up on 10m, with the help of the IC-746PRO’s internal antenna tuner.
Being the CW guy I am, I started out tuning around down in the CW band, but only heard one station calling CQ. He heard me, but I was too weak to make the contact.
I switched to the phone portion of the band and made a couple of contacts. One guy, K2GV, had the strongest signal on the band, so I figured I could work him, and indeed I did. It turns out that he had a six-element log periodic antenna. With that antenna, he probably could have worked me with the proverbial wet noodle.
It’s kind of cool making contacts on 10m at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. I can only guess at how much fun it will be when we’re at the peak of the cycle. I do know one thing. I’m going to need a better antenna. I still have the PVC pipe I bought to make the 10m full-wave loop antenna, so I think I’ll give that a try.
After 10m started to fade, I switched to 30m and made five more contacts. I worked a station in Colombia, and then had a DL call me after that QSO. I always like it when DX stations call me.
I’ve been working a lot of DX lately, on both 30m and 40m, including both South America and Europe.
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