2188 miles on 20 meters

[MitchellB]

I know this is not too exciting for most of you seasoned operators, but I just recently upgraded to General. I just made my longest 2-way HF voice conversation tonight with Jefferson County, Montana’s QSO Party from here from NC. According to Map Quest KD7DCR is 2188 highway miles from me. He first heard me at 50 watts, but I had to max out my little transceiver to 100 watts to clear the signal up. My new homemade dual band 10/20meter dipole antenna I stretched out to the tree behind the house seems to be doing a grand job.

 

[avistar23]

Congrats, this will become a normal occasion soon. i know the feeling of my first few DX, i loved it!

 

[ahamoperator]

Congrats!!! "Love this Radio Stuff!!"<<More audio>>

73, Keith

 

[wavrider]

Congrats on the contact

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Not bad for a local contact on 20m. Wait until you work some DX out 5000 or maybe 9000+ miles. I really like 20m for long haul DX. Congrats on the upgrade BTW.

 

[Wiskey Delta-40]

Wait till the grey line... and just after, 20 is GREAT

My favourite band right now

 

[KingCobra_CDX882]

Hey Congrats..
In time you should do much better (is always fun )


More Importantly Congrats on your general and welcome to the forum

 

[airplane1]

Very good, now you will be getting more and more contacts like this one and even farther.

Congrats.

 

[Blue Jay]

Congrats on your upgrade and contact. I remember my first HF SSB contact, Germany on 20M with 100W!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Congrats on your upgrade and contact. I remember my first HF SSB contact, Germany on 20M with 100W!

I remember my first HF contact too. IIRC the call was NØAH and he was a real oldtimer operating maritime mobile weathering out a massive rain storm somewhere in the Middle East area at the time. I believe he said he was transporting a load of livestock.

 

[unit248]

This past Thursday, there was a tremendous storm here in the SF bay area, complete with thunder and lightning. Around 11PM, after the ruckus had died down a bit, I turned the radio on and heard ZS4L in South Africa on 14.285. I managed to work him as his last contact before he went off the air (he had just wrapped up with WH6OM in Hawaii, who I was also able to copy). I was only using 100 watts with the Kenwood TS-850 and my 88 foot doublet (dipole) antenna. He gave me a 5-6/5-7 report and he was a solid 5-9. Only the 2nd time I've ever worked South Africa from SF. I was surprised to hear 20m open at all at that hour. (It varies seasonally, but typically 20 goes dead around here once the sun goes down.)

According to QRZ.com, that's about 10671 miles from my QTH.

-Bill

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

As the solar cycle ramps up 20m will be open 24 hours a day to some area of the world or another for days or weeks on end. I remember at 2:00am working Australia, Kenya, and and Peru all on the same freq within a few minutes. I like 20m.

 

[MitchellB]

Thanks for all encouragement, tips and stories. I just bought a HF antenna tuner from FleaBay that is on the way, but most of the band measures below 2:1 and with 1.5:1 being the best I can do with this antenna for now. My 10 meter portion of this dual band antenna has a really narrow useable low SWR band of frequencies, but I haven’t heard much activity on 10 anyway.

 

[N8YX]

Get your antenna as high in the air as you can and work further still. In doing so you'll lower its angle of radiation - and lengthen that "first hop" distance.

 

[MitchellB]

Wow, I managed to reach a guy on the se coast of Wales this afternoon. I know that’s only about 3800+ miles, but my longest yet and my first time across either big ponds. I think I’m getting addicted to this. I do think I can take my dipole up about 40 more feet in my tree if I get my bow and arrow out.