Got a DX to Australia.

[TNFrank]

Later in the afternoon I managed to get a DX into Australia. I came in at a 4/1 and they were a 5/3-6. Band conditions were up and down but we exchanged call signs so it was official. Hard to believe a little 80w QT80 and an EFHW wire antenna could reach halfway around the World.

[Northcutt114]

Man...you're really getting out there! 

[TNFrank]

I wish I could get closer in sometimes. I see a log of POTA activations too close to hear. Maybe when I get to use 20M or 40M I can get some of the closer contacts.

[RoadApple]

When the conditions are right, it doesn't take a lot of power...

You are quickly becoming a voice of the world    Great Job!!

[TNFrank]

So far I have 12 Countries logged on QRZ. Of course 2 of those are Alaska and Hawaii but still, this little QT80 Mobile is working great as a Base Station.  I set my Inverted V up about 3 feet above the ground and tuned it to 1.4:1 SWR to see if I could get it to work as a NVIS for closer contacts. There's a lot of POTA Stations that are too close to hit with the EFHW so hopefully this will do the trick. 

[TNFrank]

Tested the Inverted V at 3 feet and still can't hear California. I wish I could find a solution to Short Range 10M HF.

[TNFrank]

Just when I thought the Inverted V at 3 feet wasn't working I got a POTA about 3 miles away here in AZ. 

[SteveShannon]

14 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Tested the Inverted V at 3 feet and still can't hear California. I wish I could find a solution to Short Range 10M HF.

I’m not certain such a thing exists. It’s too high of a frequency to reliably NVIS. 80 and 40 meters are the frequencies where you can eliminate the gap between local and distant communications. 

[TNFrank]

To be fair I hooked up my 10M EFHW and heard them as well but with more static. I wonder why the EFHW has so much static and the Inverted V doesn't?  I've added a Ferrite Bead to the RG8x cable and to the power and ground that goes to the radio but I still have a lot of static. 

[tweiss3]

41 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Just when I thought the Inverted V at 3 feet wasn't working I got a POTA about 3 miles away here in AZ. 

That is ground wave, not NVIS.

56 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Tested the Inverted V at 3 feet and still can't hear California. I wish I could find a solution to Short Range 10M HF.

 

NVIS at 10m is almost non-existent. You need the right atmospheric conditions.

[SteveShannon]

40 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

To be fair I hooked up my 10M EFHW and heard them as well but with more static. I wonder why the EFHW has so much static and the Inverted V doesn't?  I've added a Ferrite Bead to the RG8x cable and to the power and ground that goes to the radio but I still have a lot of static. 

My probably inadequate understanding is that most sources of man made noise are horizontally constructed and thus are horizontally polarized. Vertical antennas have less noise usually than horizontal. An inverted v is somewhat similar to a vertical antenna in that it’s not horizontal. 
Try a good high gain vertical antenna and see how you do. You might even choose to do something like this:

 

[Davichko5650]

1 hour ago, TNFrank said:

Just when I thought the Inverted V at 3 feet wasn't working I got a POTA about 3 miles away here in AZ. 

That'd be a groundwave contact there. We typically see good groundwave here on our Wed. night net on 28310 USB.  Get stations in the TC area in MN that are up to 20+ miles from the NCS's location.  And when the band is open, they love those stateside and DX check-ins.

Wed nights at 1930 local time (0130 zulu std and 0030 during DST)  28310 khz the St Paul Radio Club Friendly net. NCS is Dale NØPEY - good friend and fellow ASA veteran!

[Davichko5650]

SteveShannon said:

 

"My probably inadequate understanding is that most sources of man made noise are horizontally constructed and thus are horizontally polarized. Vertical antennas have less noise usually than horizontal."

 

 

I always had heard the conventional wisdom that Verticals had more noise.  I can't speak to this as any kind of expert. But I run a vertical at home for 80-6m and I don't see more noise in the urban environment as opposed to friends running horizontals or slopers.  We've found that noise is more a result of the RFI environment the antenna is in - pesky LED lights, wall warts, etc. etc. And of course time of day. I run 60m a lot (and will more so after 2-13-26) and it's noisy in the early evening, but useable,  and then dead quiet late night (and open like crazy into Europe for cw, phone and ft8.

[TNFrank]

My Inverted V is a lot more quite than my EFHW is. 

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, Davichko5650 said:

SteveShannon said:

 

"My probably inadequate understanding is that most sources of man made noise are horizontally constructed and thus are horizontally polarized. Vertical antennas have less noise usually than horizontal."

 

 

I always had heard the conventional wisdom that Verticals had more noise.  I can't speak to this as any kind of expert. But I run a vertical at home for 80-6m and I don't see more noise in the urban environment as opposed to friends running horizontals or slopers.  We've found that noise is more a result of the RFI environment the antenna is in - pesky LED lights, wall warts, etc. etc. And of course time of day. I run 60m a lot (and will more so after 2-13-26) and it's noisy in the early evening, but useable,  and then dead quiet late night (and open like crazy into Europe for cw, phone and ft8.

Google agrees with you. Apparently my understanding is not only inadequate, but wrong. 

[Davichko5650]

17 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

Google agrees with you. Apparently my understanding is not only inadequate, but wrong. 

Well I think the "conventional wisdom" I spoke of comes from atmospheric noise, especially as relates to Lightning caused static crashes on the lower bands.  It comes down to most lightning being cloud to ground and that would be seen as a vertically polarized electromagnetic wave.  But listening to 80 meters when there's a storm either near or far, I think both polarizations would see noise, but the vertical might have an S unit or more higher reading?