TNFrank

I come out to Hunt some POTA and the 10M Band is REALLY quite. I guess folks are burned out from yesterday and all the 10-10 stuff. Hopefully it'll pick up in a bit so I can get a few more Hunts in the log.

It was very crowded yesterday. I did get a QSO from the B.C. and D.C. QSO Party folks in my log. Not much on POTA today yet, hopefully it'll come around in a bit.

I managed to get 9 POTA Hunts today. That should get me to or over the 100 Hunts Award.

Do you need a 10-10 number to reply to people in the contest and if so how do you get one. Also, is everyone able to responded to the QSO Parties or only certain groups?

Lots of folks doing the 10/10 deal today. I didn't have a number so I didn't bother taking to anyone but I did get quite a few POTA Hunts under my belt today.

I see the AZ stations on the POTA site but can't QSO with them. 10M is covered up today. Not heard it this busy in a long time.

I made a QSO with the Minnesota group. Other than that I was too busy Hunting POTA Activations.

Made a little video of some POTA Hunting I did this morning. Lots of Activators but not all come in because of all things, they're TOO CLOSE, LOL. Anyway, enjoy the vid and get out there and Hunt some POTA.

Also, as far as me setting up an NVIS, it'll only work on close in stations if THEY are also running an NVIS set up. Otherwise their signal will still skip right over me.

I just didn't like the way the coil was open. The HF-009 has an enclosed coil which will protect it better. For 10M with it you don't need the coil section.

That's the video I saw on YouTube.

The Radtel RT-900 HT does do 6M but only FM so it's not much use. I'll check it out with the QRP radio when I get it.

I also think they're using a linear amp because I can hear it power up before they TX. They really mess with adjacent frequencies I'm trying to pick up. I made a POTA QSO from Hawaii today on 28.384MHz but it wasn't easy because of bleed over from 28.385MHz.

I don't have anything right now that'll do 6M SSB but the QRP radio I'm getting is supposed to do 6M so maybe I'll check it out. After I get my General more of 10M will be open to me and I'll be able to do 12M and 15M with the QT80 so I'll play on them for POTA and DX.

Late this afternoon as the Band shifted I made a QSO with a guy in Japan....JAPAN! At the same time I couldn't even hear Oregon or Texas. 10M has to be one of the craziest Bands on HF.

I still think the BF-F8HP-Pro is hard to beat for any price.

If anything a better SWR would be more efficient so it'd bring in more noise. I used my power/SWR meter to initially tune the antenna and it looked good on the meter. I didn't know the radio also had a built in SWR meter. Once I found that out I used it to further tune the antenna using the radio's SWR meter which got me down to the 1.2:1 which I think is pretty good for a home built wire antenna. I have 6 Ferrite beads on the RG8x cable 19" down from the balun and I ordered some more to add a couple more. I'll also get the choke next Tuesday so hopefully that'll help too. Seems like early in the morning the static is less than later in the day so it's probably a solar kind of deal.

Yep, QT80 with the HF-009. Currently using my 10M EFHW though.

I did use the SWR Meter that's built into the QT80 to tune my 10M EFHW to 1.2:1 so I know it's good.

Just another reason I hate living in the city.

Buy once, Cry once. M&P is supposed to be pretty good stuff. Should last you a long time with proper care.

At least I know the HF-009 works now. I was starting to have my doubts but it redeemed it's self the couple QSO's I made with it. Now if I can just get the noise off of my EFHW it'll be good.

With the Dipole and the HF-009 the noise isn't nearly as bad as it is with the EFHW.

I set up the 009 without the coil and tuned it to 10M with a 1.5:1 SWR and actually made a POTA contact in Alabama. So, I know it'll work.

We have solar on the house, that might be it. Plus, living in a housing addition with tons of people doesn't help either. The RF interference seems to be on the high end of each band in the 380-390 areas. I hope the choke helps, if not I'll just have to live with it I guess.