18 October 2015

Keeping busy

The bands are terrible today.  I heard a station from Chile calling on 12 meters so I called him back.  He heard me, but between the lousy conditions, the new S9+ line noise that recently popped up, and some seriously strong QSB (signal fading), we both gave up.  I was kinda irritated because that would have been my first Chilean contact!

Just the same, I've kept busy in the shack...

I have been good and started to upload my log to my QRZ.com logbook, Clublog, eQSL, and LotW on Sundays now.  The sad thing is that I'm missing most of 2012 and pretty much all of 2013 and 2014 in my logs.  I know I made contacts during that time but alas, no records of them.  If you contacted me during that time and you've never received confirmation, please contact me via email or on QRZ.com via private message.  I would love to get this log situation corrected!

You can now check to see if you're in my QRZ.com and Clublog logs by going to my website and checking.  Be forewarned that I am still working on entering everything I have before 30 September 2015 into xlog.  That's going kinda slow but please be patient with me.  I've learned my lesson about sloppy logging!  I am also paper logging also for a backup.

In addition to my logbooks, I've worked heavily on the website.  I've added fresh pictures of the antenna and updated a lot of information.  You can check out the website for yourself and see.

I was given permission to build a full-size G5RV out in the "back 40".  However, I am worried about how much coax I'm going to need.  It looks like a minimum of 100 feet, if not closer to 200 feet.  I'm researching which type of coax would be good for that and, more concerning to me, the cost.  I'm still looking for work so this probably will not happen anytime soon, but I'm planning on it.

I did manage to work one station this morning, Geert OP4U in Belgium, on 17 meters quite nicely.  He had a very nice signal coming in here.

I can only imagine if I bought some land out here and put up a hexbeam at 50'.  Heck, even a full-size G5RV on two telephone poles would be great too.  Ah, one can dream.

For now though, enough playing in the shack.  Lots of other things to do.

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