10M is really quite today, 2/9/26.

[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. 

[Davichko5650]

27 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

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. 

I assume you're checking the spots listed on the POTA website and then seeing if you're hearing them at your location?

[TNFrank]

The POTA site is my "go to" to find Activators to Hunt. Just like in my video I posted. Hopefully some folks will get out to Activate before I have to get ready for work.

[TNFrank]

Just checked 20M SSB, it's covered up in POTA Activators. Can't wait to get my General License so I can Hunt on 20M.

[TNFrank]

Finally got a couple QSO's out of Alabama. 

[Northcutt114]

58 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Just checked 20M SSB, it's covered up in POTA Activators. Can't wait to get my General License so I can Hunt on 20M.

The difference in 20m and 10m in the POTAverse is night and day. As you saw, 20m is absolutely covered up. The last two parks that I activated, I didn't even call CQ. I just hunted the people who were already on the air and easily activated in less than 90 minutes in both parks. There were 82 activations yesterday afternoon. Finding space for 82 operators on an already crowded band was wild. People were all over each other, stepping on and bleeding over. Crazy two days.

 

[TNFrank]

That's how 10M was yesterday, lots of bleed over and even people trying to use the same frequency. I take my General February 18th so after that I'll make sure my 20M EFHW is tuned and Hunt it.

[WRYZ926]

I have had the best luck activating on 20m.

I do the majority of my POTA hunting on FT8. That makes it easier to work activators on all bands. I can hear and work stations on FT8 that I would never hear on SSB.

[TNFrank]

I actually enjoy talking to the people who are Activating. I know a log of folks here talk about how great FT8 is and it probably does work well for getting information out from one place to another. For me, personally, radio is about voice and making a human connection with the person on the other end through having a conversation with them, however breif it may be. I'll stick with SSB. 

[WRYZ926]

Actually I enjoy SSB when doing a POTA activation. I work both FT8 and SSB when hunting. If band conditions are bad for SSB then I will switch to FT8 and still work stations.

FT8 is not for everyone, but I do enjoy it as I have worked DX stations all over the world that I would never be able to work on SSB. To each their own. 

[SteveShannon]

11 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

Actually I enjoy SSB when doing a POTA activation. I work both FT8 and SSB when hunting. If band conditions are bad for SSB then I will switch to FT8 and still work stations.

FT8 is not for everyone, but I do enjoy it as I have worked DX stations all over the world that I would never be able to work on SSB. To each their own. 

Exactly.  FT8 and phone are different uses but a person doesn’t have to choose one and forsake the other for all time.  FT8 has a very narrow use case, logging bare minimum contacts quickly.  On a good day it can be fun chasing FT8, but at another time a person might just want to talk to someone. Or play with one of the many other modes of amateur radio communication.  There are so many different ways to communicate and fortunately we can play with all of them.

[WRYZ926]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

Exactly.  FT8 and phone are different uses but a person doesn’t have to choose one and forsake the other for all time.  FT8 has a very narrow use case, logging bare minimum contacts quickly.  On a good day it can be fun chasing FT8, but at another time a person might just want to talk to someone. Or play with one of the many other modes of amateur radio communication.  There are so many different ways to communicate and fortunately we can play with all of them.

That is the nice thing about amateur radio, there is something for everyone. Some only use CW, some only use SSB, some only use AM, or some enjoy using all of the different modes.

Sometimes I get bored using my 100 watt HF base station on any mode and will swap the antennas over to my G90 or my X6200 to see what stations I can hear and work at 20 or 5 watts.  

My Elmer let me borrow an old Ten-Tec HF radio when I was first licensed. He is the second owner of the radio. He had to scrounge for a hand mic since he and the original owner only worked CW with the radio.

I get a kick out of a couple of the old timers in my club. They are always bashing FT8 saying it isn't real radio. Yet they are knee deep into Winlink and APRS.

Use what ever mode or modes that you like but don't bash the other modes.

[Northcutt114]

13 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

FT8 is not for everyone, but I do enjoy it as I have worked DX stations all over the world that I would never be able to work on SSB. To each their own. 

I recently traded into a bunch of radio stuff. "Estate sale, guy was moving" kind of thing. I managed to acquire an ICOM 7300 that is now on my desk. I also found a Signalink in the bottom of the box of stuff, so I plan to try out the FT8 later this week. See what all those weird, alien sounds are actually doing.

 

[Davichko5650]

15 hours ago, TNFrank said:

I actually enjoy talking to the people who are Activating. I know a log of folks here talk about how great FT8 is and it probably does work well for getting information out from one place to another. For me, personally, radio is about voice and making a human connection with the person on the other end through having a conversation with them, however breif it may be. I'll stick with SSB. 

I enjoy most every facet of the Amateur Radio hobby, but my main interest is in the digital modes such as PSK31, Hellschreiber, VarAC, etc.  This is mostly due to the fact that I spend a good deal of my work day talking on two-way radios, a trunked 800 MHz encrypted system, but still enjoy chatting, so I let my fingers do the talking! .  I do also enjoy FT8/4.

Any mode that is a true RF to RF transfer of information still grabs my ear or eye.  I dabble in DMR, but since our local Wed. night net got booted off Brandmeister, have not used it as much. I use EchoLink now and again to connect with friends in SE TN on their 2m repeater.

The great thing about the Amateur Service: there's something there for everyone!

Anyone out there want to try a My GMRS on air meet up?  I can be QRV on 28400 on Saturday at 1400 UTC! If Condx are decent I should be able to hear both coasts and inland...

[Davichko5650]

19 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I recently traded into a bunch of radio stuff. "Estate sale, guy was moving" kind of thing. I managed to acquire an ICOM 7300 that is now on my desk. I also found a Signalink in the bottom of the box of stuff, so I plan to try out the FT8 later this week. See what all those weird, alien sounds are actually doing.

 

You won't need the SignaLink for the 7300 - built in soundcard.

[Northcutt114]

30 minutes ago, Davichko5650 said:

You won't need the SignaLink for the 7300 - built in soundcard.

Oh, really? Well maybe it's for the Yaesu FT-897, then. Interesting.

So a 7300 will do digital modes just with a USB plugged into the computer? No intermediary?

 

[SteveShannon]

2 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

Oh, really? Well maybe it's for the Yaesu FT-897, then. Interesting.

So a 7300 will do digital modes just with a USB plugged into the computer? No intermediary?

 

Yes

[Davichko5650]

1 minute ago, Northcutt114 said:

Oh, really? Well maybe it's for the Yaesu FT-897, then. Interesting.

So a 7300 will do digital modes just with a USB plugged into the computer? No intermediary?

 

Yes the 7300, similar to my Yaesu FT-710, has a built in sound card. A buddy who has one had it out at a local Park meet up (non-POTA) that we do up here 2nd Saturdays and he was running it on FT8 and RTTY and it was most excellent.

The 897 would indeed need the SignaLink. I would think the SL was jumpered or had the jumper chip for Yaesu.  I have one I use on my FT-450D and my FT-891 at home and mobile/portable.

[Northcutt114]

Just now, SteveShannon said:

Yes

I've never owned a radio this nice. I'm learning daily. I can not wait to TX @ 100w. Never done that before, either.

OK, so the signalink must be for the 897. Because the other radios don't even have ports for it.

As always, thanks, guys!

 

[Northcutt114]

1 minute ago, Davichko5650 said:

The 897 would indeed need the SignaLink. I would think the SL was jumpered or had the jumper chip for Yaesu.  I have one I use on my FT-450D and my FT-891 at home and mobile/portable.

There is a yellow piece of paper with a diagram for a jumper set up in the bottom of the box. I watched a couple of YouTube videos about it last night. I'm assuming it's the Yaesu diagram. I guess I just assumed that since it was in the box with the ICOM that it went with that. 

[Davichko5650]

5 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

Oh, really? Well maybe it's for the Yaesu FT-897, then. Interesting.

So a 7300 will do digital modes just with a USB plugged into the computer? No intermediary?

 

To add to it. I use FLDigi on my HF radios and it opens up a world of modes for digital!  It will even decode wefax and navtex for checking out weather. It also sends and receives CW very well. I use it for contesting as I'm not a great fist when it comes to sending morse.

[Davichko5650]

Just now, Northcutt114 said:

There is a yellow piece of paper with a diagram for a jumper set up in the bottom of the box. I watched a couple of YouTube videos about it last night. I'm assuming it's the Yaesu diagram. I guess I just assumed that since it was in the box with the ICOM that it went with that. 

I at first did the jumper wires for my 450D, but went with the jumper pad or chip as it's more solid and I was swapping it out between the 450 and my TS-440S until I sold that off.

[SteveShannon]

4 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I've never owned a radio this nice. I'm learning daily. I can not wait to TX @ 100w. Never done that before, either.

OK, so the signalink must be for the 897. Because the other radios don't even have ports for it.

As always, thanks, guys!

 

You’re going to be amazed at the capabilities of the 7300. It has the ability to sweep SWR of an antenna also. In many ways it’s a nearly perfect first radio. 

[WRYS709]

16 hours ago, TNFrank said:

I actually enjoy talking to the people who are Activating. I know a log of folks here talk about how great FT8 is and it probably does work well for getting information out from one place to another. For me, personally, radio is about voice and making a human connection with the person on the other end through having a conversation with them, however breif it may be. I'll stick with SSB. 

Yesterday, I did a Late Shift Activation at a new Park starting later than usual.  

I started with 40 meters FT8 with the Radioddity HF-008 and the Xiegu G106 using my iPhone with iFTx.  I like to get close to the minimum 10 contacts before switching over to SSB.  Last night I seemed to hit a wall at 6 contacts.

I moved over to 40 meters SSB on my 100 watt Yaesu FT-857 and after calling CQ POTA for about 40 minutes, I finally heard a "VA7" in the mud.  I asked him to wait 10 minutes and try again and sure enough, the band improved and I not only logged him in, he was kind enough to Re-Spot me on POTA.  He was in Victoria BC.

So I moved over to 80 meters but instead of recalibrating the HF-008 in the dark (I am thinking about purchasing extra "stingers" to have already calibrated for multiple bands), I went over to my MFJ 1880-T HT-style monoband antenna on the Radioddity M916 Triple Mag-Mount.  I already know from experience to collapse the bottom two extensions for good SWR that my AN-100M Pro can tune.

I called CQ again for about 40 minutes on various frequencies around 3750 - 3850 but was unable to get a QSO.  Moving back to the G106 for FT8, I could receive many different stations, but was unable to complete any FT8 QSOs.  I discovered part of the problem may have been transmitting on 3574 instead of 3573.

I wanted to end the night with the minimum 10 QSOs, so I put the HF-008 back on for 40 meters and returned to FT8 there.

After starting slow, the band must have changed as suddenly I was knocking them out one after another including about a half dozen Japan calls that lined up for my CQ POTAs!  I ended the night with 16 QSOs.

My point is that when band conditions are frustrating, there is much satisfaction to completing FT8 QSOs.

[WRYS709]

1 hour ago, Northcutt114 said:

I also found a Signalink in the bottom of the box of stuff, so I plan to try out the FT8 later this week. See what all those weird, alien sounds are actually doing.

I have had a Signalink for many years to get my Yaesu FT-857d into digital modes.

I purchased the DE-19 sound card for my Xiegu G106 and my Icom 705 has its own internal sound card.

But since I want to do POTA FT8 without a laptop, I have been experimenting with the iPhone App iFTx and it does not work out of the box with either radio, due to iPhones not allowing CAT control.

So I have dusted off my Signalink and purchased two sets of Jumper Module/Cables for each of these radios in the hopes that I can make iFTx work automatically with each radio using Signalink.

In the meantime, I CAN get iFTx to work with the G106 and DE-19, if I manually hit the PTT mic button on each part of the the FT8 cycle that requires transmission.