First QSO today.

[Northcutt114]

I think I've got this thing running. Went out to the park for the afternoon to play radio and did pretty good, I think, for my little QRP rig. Still haven't managed to activate a park yet. I tried again this morning and got no contacts and was having a hard time hearing anything. Went to a different park and boom. DX'ing across the hemisphere. I'm beginning to think that there's some RF interference or something wonky going on at the other park.

 

[SteveShannon]

20 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I'm beginning to think that there's some RF interference or something wonky going on at the other park.

 

Maybe, but it could just as easily be terrain, nearby buildings, or even propagation. I’ve been on nets that started out crystal clear to stations several hundred miles away and then within seconds faded to inaudible. 
Radio is fickle. Sometimes it seems to depend on how you hold your mouth!

Based on what I see that you’re doing, you and @TNFrank are doing very well. You’re learning like drinking from a fire hose. 

[TNFrank]

I found 3 POTA's today, all were weaker signals than others that I couldn't make a QSO with. Seems like how loud/strong a signal sounds doesn't always mean YOU can reach them. I'm only pushing around 35w SSB from what I understand but from what all the G90 guys say that's more than enough. I wish I could push 100w or even the max allowed, 200w. I'd bet that guy in Hokkaido, Japan would hear me then, LOL.

[Northcutt114]

9 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Maybe, but it could just as easily be terrain, nearby buildings, or even propagation. I’ve been on nets that started out crystal clear to stations several hundred miles away and then within seconds faded to inaudible. 
Radio is fickle. Sometimes it seems to depend on how you hold your mouth!

Based on what I see that you’re doing, you and @TNFrank are doing very well. You’re learning like drinking from a fire hose. 

Geographically speaking, the two parks are almost identical. Wide open, unobstructed view of the sky...both on a lake. The park in question has been activated as recently as yesterday, so I know it can be done. I found the email of that person and have reached out to see where they set up and if they experienced any trouble. We'll see where that leads.

I understand that the bands come and go, but it seems too coincidental to me that both times I have been to this park, I've been unable to get out at all...and everywhere else I've been, I've been able to get out to 100% of the people I have attempted to contact.

As to learning...yes, I'm doing a lot of that. And for every bit that I claw up, I'm finding volumes of more things I don't know.

[TNFrank]

42 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I think I've got this thing running. Went out to the park for the afternoon to play radio and did pretty good, I think, for my little QRP rig. Still haven't managed to activate a park yet. I tried again this morning and got no contacts and was having a hard time hearing anything. Went to a different park and boom. DX'ing across the hemisphere. I'm beginning to think that there's some RF interference or something wonky going on at the other park.

I'll be on tomorrow morning which seems to be the best time for East Coast contacts. Let me know what frequency you'll be on and I'll see if I can pick you up. I got a QSO from a guy in Quebec Canada that was doing a POTA and also one in Ohio so Georgia should be easy enough. Talk to ya' later. 73

[Northcutt114]

1 minute ago, TNFrank said:

I found 3 POTA's today, all were weaker signals than others that I couldn't make a QSO with. Seems like how loud/strong a signal sounds doesn't always mean YOU can reach them. I'm only pushing around 35w SSB from what I understand but from what all the G90 guys say that's more than enough. I wish I could push 100w or even the max allowed, 200w. I'd bet that guy in Hokkaido, Japan would hear me then, LOL.

I can confirm that it's more than enough...sometimes. I think that A LOT of it has to do with conditions and propagation. And when i say "A LOT" I mean most. Today, on a G90, I made a contact 4,800 miles away. Longest contact yet. He gave me a 55 signal report and I gave him a 59. But earlier in the day, I hunted a POTA in California - a thousand miles closer - and he gave me a 45 and said I was just above his noise level. But we spoke and had a conversation and understood each other.

Same radio, same operator. I suspect, different propagation.

 

[SteveShannon]

22 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I found 3 POTA's today, all were weaker signals than others that I couldn't make a QSO with. Seems like how loud/strong a signal sounds doesn't always mean YOU can reach them. I'm only pushing around 35w SSB from what I understand but from what all the G90 guys say that's more than enough. I wish I could push 100w or even the max allowed, 200w. I'd bet that guy in Hokkaido, Japan would hear me then, LOL.

You might be surprised.  The difference between an S7 and an S9 on your signal strength meter, corresponds to 5 watts versus 80 watts, or 10 watts versus 160 watts.  

[TNFrank]

I hear people clear as can be, 5/9+ on the East Coast and they'll be talking to someone here in Arizona that I can barley hear. Their signal must just be going over me as it skips off of the upper atmosphere. 

I was getting 5/4 and 5/5 reports that I was giving 5/8's and 5/9's to. 

I'd love to get a 100w amp but they cost $600+, more than my radio costs. 

I don't know if going to the 80w QT80 would help anything or not over the QT60 I have now. Like you said, the G90 at 20w gets you out pretty far so moving up to more power might be a waste of money unless it's 300-400w, then it's going to make a difference especially if it's pushed through a good antenna that up nice and high.

[WRYZ926]

Forget about trying to fully understand propagation. As soon as you think you have it figured out, it will throw you for a loop.

And yes your signal can definitely skip right over closer stations. Some has to do with propagation and some has to do with the type of antenna you are using.

I did a POTA activation using my G90 and a 1/4 wave ground mounted vertical. I was working stations all over the gulf coast, east coast and Canada that day. But a friend that was 20 miles away could not hear me at all as my signal was skipping right over top of him. He heard every station that I was working though.

He lives 500 meters away from me in town. We usually hear each other at a +20 dB or higher on FT8. But one day he was only hearing me at a -12 dB and a few days later I was only hearing him at a -15 dB. You just never know about propagation.

A 20 watt radio is more than enough when paired with a good resonant antenna and good coax. Where 100 or more watts helps is breaking through a pile up.

[Northcutt114]

4 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

You might be surprised.  The difference between an S7 and an S9 on your signal strength meter, corresponds to 5 watts versus 80 watts, or 10 watts versus 160 watts.  

See? That's another thing I don't know. I heard guys calling "S followed by a number". It was a rag chew from somewhere in the UP if I had to guess based on accent. But the two guys were talking about antennas and signals and they kept talking about "going from an S something or the other to a different S something or the other. "Oooooh pal; that's gonna put you up waaaaay over S9, eh?" Or something like that.

I googled it only to find out that it involves even more math. 

I assume it is the second half of the signal report people are always asking for. I have just been "ear-balling it" I had no idea there was a meter on the radio to tell me. 

[SteveShannon]

21 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I hear people clear as can be, 5/9+ on the East Coast and they'll be talking to someone here in Arizona that I can barley hear. Their signal must just be going over me as it skips off of the upper atmosphere. 

I was getting 5/4 and 5/5 reports that I was giving 5/8's and 5/9's to. 

I'd love to get a 100w amp but they cost $600+, more than my radio costs. 

I don't know if going to the 80w QT80 would help anything or not over the QT60 I have now. Like you said, the G90 at 20w gets you out pretty far so moving up to more power might be a waste of money unless it's 300-400w, then it's going to make a difference especially if it's pushed through a good antenna that up nice and high.

You can get a Yaesu ft-891 for just about $640 and it’s a much better radio, 160-6 meters, and 100 watts. But, it doesn’t have the antenna analyzer and tuner that the g90 has.  Again, I recommend you don’t buy power rather than more useful features.  It’s a fools errand.

[SteveShannon]

4 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

See? That's another thing I don't know. I heard guys calling "S followed by a number". It was a rag chew from somewhere in the UP if I had to guess based on accent. But the two guys were talking about antennas and signals and they kept talking about "going from an S something or the other to a different S something or the other. "Oooooh pal; that's gonna put you up waaaaay over S9, eh?" Or something like that.

I googled it only to find out that it involves even more math. 

I assume it is the second half of the signal report people are always asking for. I have just been "ear-balling it" I had no idea there was a meter on the radio to tell me. 

Did you find the s-meter on your radio eventually?  Keep in mind that it’s relative.  If you have rf gain all the way up and pre-amps turned off you’ll get the most useful reading, but that sometimes makes it hard to copy.  Turning down rf gain quiets the background noise, but then the S meter moves very little. Turning on the pre-amp gives you an artificial boost to your s-meter.  It’s complicated.

[Northcutt114]

4 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Did you find the s-meter on your radio eventually?  Keep in mind that it’s relative.  If you have rf gain all the way up and pre-amps turned off you’ll get the most useful reading, but that sometimes makes it hard to copy.  Turning down rf gain quiets the background noise, but then the S meter moves very little. Turning on the pre-amp gives you an artificial boost to your s-meter.  It’s complicated.

yeah, I found it. Right in the middle of the blinker blanking screen. I just didn't know that was the "S meter." Even though it literally has an "S" right there on it.

I usually run the RF gain around 30% and keep the pre amp on when I'm on 10m. I have noticed on other bands, they are significantly louder, for whatever reason, and so I have the preamp off when listening there.

[Northcutt114]

42 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I don't know if going to the 80w QT80 would help anything or not over the QT60 I have now. Like you said, the G90 at 20w gets you out pretty far so moving up to more power might be a waste of money unless it's 300-400w, then it's going to make a difference especially if it's pushed through a good antenna that up nice and high.

I watched your video when you were DX'ing from the backyard. Before I spent another dollar, I would work on getting that antenna up higher. I think you would be surprised. The one thing that I did know - for certain - before getting into radio is that the antenna is the most important part of the system.

[Northcutt114]

33 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

Forget about trying to fully understand propagation. As soon as you think you have it figured out, it will throw you for a loop.

And yes your signal can definitely skip right over closer stations. Some has to do with propagation and some has to do with the type of antenna you are using.

I did a POTA activation using my G90 and a 1/4 wave ground mounted vertical. I was working stations all over the gulf coast, east coast and Canada that day. But a friend that was 20 miles away could not hear me at all as my signal was skipping right over top of him. He heard every station that I was working though.

He lives 500 meters away from me in town. We usually hear each other at a +20 dB or higher on FT8. But one day he was only hearing me at a -12 dB and a few days later I was only hearing him at a -15 dB. You just never know about propagation.

A 20 watt radio is more than enough when paired with a good resonant antenna and good coax. Where 100 or more watts helps is breaking through a pile up.

There is so much truth in this post. Sooo much. Especially the "breaking through a pile up" comment. Allow me to explain with an example from today. A guy was calling CQ from Santiago, Chile...and I thought, "Boy would that be cool if I could reach him." I tried several times but nothing. Side note....apparently there are a lot of Kilo Four stations out there. Two different times, I thought he had heard me only to find out it was another K4 station that I couldn't hear. Anyhow, once I realized that it was a bit of a pile up, I just waited. And I waited. About 10 minutes later, he called CQ once, and then again. I immediately keyed up and he heard me, 55 in Santiago, Chile. It became apparent to me in that moment that I had been making the trip the whole time, I was just getting drowned out by the other, more powerful stations.

 

[Northcutt114]

26 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

You can get a Yaesu ft-891 

I looked long and hard at that radio. Long and hard. Eventually went with the G90 for the tuner and the fact that I wouldn't have to lug around 100lbs of batteries to run it.

I'm still looking hard at the FT-891. It's a tiny radio to push 100w. But as a predominantly mobile operator, I don't know what I'd do with it. I know tons of POTA people just drive their car to the park and probably have a 100w mobile in their vehicle. To me, though, that's cheating...well, maybe not cheating but it doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the thing. If that makes sense.

 

[SteveShannon]

2 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I looked long and hard at that radio. Long and hard. Eventually went with the G90 for the tuner and the fact that I wouldn't have to lug around 100lbs of batteries to run it.

I'm still looking hard at the FT-891. It's a tiny radio to push 100w. But as a predominantly mobile operator, I don't know what I'd do with it. I know tons of POTA people just drive their car to the park and probably have a 100w mobile in their vehicle. To me, though, that's cheating...well, maybe not cheating but it doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the thing. If that makes sense.

 

I understand what you’re saying. 
I have an FT-891, but I wish I also had a G90, for the reasons I’ve gone through many times before - features. 
For not too much more a person could get an FT-710, which does have a built in tuner (though not as capable as the g90’s) and which can’t perform the functions of an SWR sweep like the g90.

Still, I prefer having a separate antenna analyzer and a nanoVNA for the antenna things I like to do. 

[WRYZ926]

4 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

m still looking hard at the FT-891. It's a tiny radio to push 100w. But as a predominantly mobile operator, I don't know what I'd do with it. I know tons of POTA people just drive their car to the park and probably have a 100w mobile in their vehicle. To me, though, that's cheating...well, maybe not cheating but it doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the thing. If that makes sense.

I agree with you on that. One club member drives his truck to parks and sits inside with his Icom IC-706. To me that is not POTA. And other guys want to drag out a big box with an ICom IC7300 or Yaesu FTDX10 and a lot of batteries to run them. They usually don't make it much farther that their trunk or tail gate with all that weight.

I can grab my G90 and small battery box and work all day. I like that the REZ antennas system has the small case that everything fits into. I throw that over my shoulder and then carry my G90 and battery box. If there aren't any picnic tables available then I have a small light weight folding camping table and a good camping chair.

I'm Stil trying to come up with the best light weight and small setup for my Xiegu X6200. The X6200 is definitely QRP as it is only 5 watts on the internal battery and 8 watts on an external battery.

[WRYZ926]

2 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

I understand what you’re saying. 
I have an FT-891, but I wish I also had a G90, for the reasons I’ve gone through many times before - features. 
For not too much more a person could get an FT-710, which does have a built in tuner (though not as capable as the g90’s) and which can’t perform the functions of an SWR sweep like the g90.

Still, I prefer having a separate antenna analyzer and a nanoVNA for the antenna things I like to do. 

Dang it I ran out of reactions for the day.

I agree 100%. It's hard to beat the G90 for the price, size and functions. While the Rig Expert antenna analyzers aren't cheap, I do love my Stick Pro. It is very compact and easy to use.

[Northcutt114]

7 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

I agree with you on that. One club member drives his truck to parks and sits inside with his Icom IC-706. To me that is not POTA. And other guys want to drag out a big box with an ICom IC7300 or Yaesu FTDX10 and a lot of batteries to run them. They usually don't make it much farther that their trunk or tail gate with all that weight.

I can grab my G90 and small battery box and work all day. I like that the REZ antennas system has the small case that everything fits into. I throw that over my shoulder and then carry my G90 and battery box. If there aren't any picnic tables available then I have a small light weight folding camping table and a good camping chair.

I'm Stil trying to come up with the best light weight and small setup for my Xiegu X6200. The X6200 is definitely QRP as it is only 5 watts on the internal battery and 8 watts on an external battery.

100% agree with all you said. Most of the time, I'm sitting on the ground, honestly. Nice blanket that I keep in the back of the Jeep. Today was the first day that I really worked the radio. I was on it, non stop for the better part of 5 hours. Started at 13.6 volts and it's reading 13.0 now. I imagine I can probably run it another two days like that before having to charge. I am kind of amazed.

Those X6xxx series radios are bananas! I was looking at the 6100. 5 watts? Are you kidding me? That's an HT you hook an antenna up to. Ridiculous. But I heard a guy today hunting a POTA from a X6100. 5w got him from Michigan to California. Pretty crazy.

 

[WRYZ926]

I can't sit on the ground anymore due to disabilities. I do have a nice camping chair that folds up as small as most tripod chairs do and a small 2x3 folding table if needed.

[Northcutt114]

13 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

I can't sit on the ground anymore due to disabilities. I do have a nice camping chair that folds up as small as most tripod chairs do and a small 2x3 folding table if needed.

Young Ham, here. I still have a few more years of ground sitting. 

[WRYZ926]

I'll be 54 in 14 days. I had too much fun while in the Army and am paying for it now. I can still do POTA but SOTA is out of the question unless I could drive most of the way to a summit.

I do have a FTDX10 and a Xiegu XPA125B amplifier (to use with the G90 or X6200). But that's extra weight and extra batteries to lug.

 

[TNFrank]

1 hour ago, Northcutt114 said:

There is so much truth in this post. Sooo much. Especially the "breaking through a pile up" comment. Allow me to explain with an example from today. A guy was calling CQ from Santiago, Chile...and I thought, "Boy would that be cool if I could reach him." I tried several times but nothing. Side note....apparently there are a lot of Kilo Four stations out there. Two different times, I thought he had heard me only to find out it was another K4 station that I couldn't hear. Anyhow, once I realized that it was a bit of a pile up, I just waited. And I waited. About 10 minutes later, he called CQ once, and then again. I immediately keyed up and he heard me, 55 in Santiago, Chile. It became apparent to me in that moment that I had been making the trip the whole time, I was just getting drowned out by the other, more powerful stations.

 

I heard that guy too. I gave him a call with no luck. There was also a guy in Uruguay that had quite a pile up going on as well. 

I seem to get out better North and East better than I do South and West. 

As for antennas, I may give one of those tuneable HF verticals a try. Lots of guys are using them for POTA and seem to get out pretty well with them.

[WRYZ926]

42 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

As for antennas, I may give one of those tuneable HF verticals a try. Lots of guys are using them for POTA and seem to get out pretty well with them.

They work well, especially with a bunch of ground radials. But you do need a NanoVNA or analyzer to tune them. You will drive yourself crazy trying to use a SWR meter to tune them.

I run 24 to 32 radials with my vertical.