TNFrank

I'd thought about a Vanity Call Sign but so many people I HUNT on POTA know my current call sign I really don't know if I want to change it or not. There's also some stuff like DMR and QRZ associated with my current call sign so I think I might as well keep it.

I actually was getting 1.6:1 without the the coil section today. Again, 10M started off slow and picked up as the Band opened up in my area.

Without the coil. I tried both ways and the coil made no difference. It tuned just as well without it. 1.8:1 without, best I could get with the coil was 1.9:1. The radio's SWR meter worked just fine to tune the antenna.

Rain was a possibility today here in AZ. so I set up the HF-009 to use. Things started out slowly but started heating up after an hour or so and I ended up making 17 POTA QSO's. That little vertical isn't half bad for an antenna you can set up quickly. Even with an SWR of 1.8:1 I was getting out pretty well. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Still going to say for a HAM HT that's Tri-Band the BF-F8HP-Pro is hard to beat. It takes the same battery as the AR-5RM and has GPS and 10 Zones of 100 channels each so you can organize your channels.

As a general rule 10M is upper side band so you probably won't hear much on FM. The "go to" radio I hear 70+% of folks running is the ICom IC-7300. It seems to be the work horse of the HF Bands. Maybe one day I'll save up enough to get one. Until then the Radioditty QT80 isn't a bad way to go for $300. It'll get you 10M, 11M, 12M and 15M FM, AM, LSB and USB and is 80w so you can get out pretty good with a decent antenna. It has a built in SWR function that you can use to help tune your antennas. The only negative I've found is how the coax connects to the radio. It's a pretty tight area but I got around it by using a BNC adapter on the radio and coax so it's easy to connect/disconnect.

Congrats. Don't wait, go have some fun on 10M and start studying for your General. I didn't think I'd want to move up to General but once I started playing on HF I discovered it's the coolest part of having an Amature license and want more HF. HamStudy.org really makes it easy to study for the General and really, the questions aren't all that hard to memorize with a bit of work. POTA is a ton of fun and if you don't have many Parks nearby to activate you can always hunt right from home. It's one of my favorite things to do. See you on 10M. 73

I looked at 15M on the POTA site and there were quite a few Activators, at least as many as 10M. My QT80 will do 15M so I ordered another 1:1 Balun to make up another inverted V to tune for 15M/21.360MHz(center of my Band area)so I'll be ready for 15M.

I was getting into Japan yesterday at a 5/5-5/6 with my little 80w QT80 and my inverted V dipole tuned to a 1.3-1.4:1 SWR. 10M to the west of me was really open. 1 week until I take my General. I can hardly wait to get on 20M and 40M.

It just seems like they'd make it a little more clear. When I see 28.5MHz I figure I'm good to 28.5MHz.

Sounds to me like the FCC needs to clarify the frequency range for 10M Technician Band privileges to include the bandwidth offset. 28.3MHz to 28.5MHz should be just that, it shouldn't be 28.3MHz-28.497MHz USB or 28.33MHz-28.5MHz LSB.

This is the first I've heard of this.

Are you sure the bandwidth(I set mine to 2kHz)isn't accounted for? As a Technician's Class License I have privileges from 28.300MHz to 28.500MHz and I'm pretty sure they account for bandwidth in those frequencies otherwise I'd be "legal" on 28.297MHz since that would put it into the 28.300MHz range with bandwidth. It just doesn't make sense to say Technicians have phone privileges on 28.3-28.5MHz if they didn't include the bandwidth in the equation. Otherwise it's 28.3-28.497MHz. It'll all be a moot point in a week once I get my General Class License.

Japan is on fire today, 2 DX so far.

The 17 minute video I posted on YouTube took over 4 hours to get the contacts I posted in it. Editing can make things look faster than they actually were.