I ran WSPR RX-only at 40m overnight, as extremely strong and prolonged winds of 120km/h and more have brought delta loop 20m operations to a standstill. My 40m antenna is a half sloper, coupled to my tower with a 12m Yagi on top.
Usefully, I could determine that the window for good propagation to ZL opens rapidly at 05:15UT from Wales, and continues at reasonable strength for at least an hour thereafter. 5W from ZL2APV was yielding a steady -16dB or so here during that period.
It's very nearly the Spring Equinox, so go make the most of what 40m offers to the antipodes!
2 comments:
Do you feed the sloper at top? I think there could also be a opening with ZL in the afternoon. At least on 60m this is the case. 73, Bas
Hi Bas. Yes, there's a 1:1 balun in one of those IP56 plastic boxes (rarely waterproof as expected - drill a hole at the lowest point for drainage!) and then a wire for 30m, and another from the same balun output for 40m, extendable to 80m. The other side of the balun just has a very short, heavy duty wire connection by hose clip to the tower metalwork. It's all quite low, but I'm already 100m above flat ground, so it works for me.
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