For this, I just unrolled 10m of wire attached to a 9:1 balun - a multi-band end-fed antenna, and laid it on the ground. I fed it with about 15-20W RF, and sent out a few CQs on FT8, to see what the reports looked like.
I think the results are quite remarkable, and certainly more than good enough to produce QSOs out to reasonable distances. At 40m, I even managed to get a -18dB signal across the Atlantic!
So, if you have rubbish neighbours, a windy location, or some other restriction on erecting a tall antenna, these new digimodes really do allow you to continue your hobby effectively, regardless.
I think this might prompt a lot more experimentation!
Results at 40m; terminator correct at time of transmissions. |
80m results. |
Results at 60m. |
1 comment:
You would be surprised to see what some stations achieve with just a dipole in the attic and QRP power (5W or less). Did you have the wire outside or inside the house? Next step....dig the wire into the ground ;-) 73, Bas
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