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38LSB

With the EZNEC antenna designed 1/2 wave vertical dipole, I can clearly hear England and Ireland in the morning, and the west coast of the US in the evening, with Texas and Ontario midday, from Eastern Virginia.

Haven't made a contact yet, but the TRC 458 is almost clearer in SSB mode than normal AM mode. Clarifier tunes to mid range like it should for most all contacts, has a great effect on SSB tonal quality.

Heard it is going to be like this for a few years with cycle #24 now. Great, I just picked this radio up from the Catlett Va thrift store last month, without a mike, for 10.00.
 
IMD262 said:
Propagation..Propagation is more important.
Click to expand...

I would say it is More a Combination of the two..
The Better your location...The More you are able to hear
(and return to contact)

Sure Propagation factors into your success..
However the better your location..The Better access you have to using Propagation...
(being buried in a valley kills most of ones access to most of the Propagation)

You can add a better antenna
(a good way to aide your abilities to get out indeed)
You can add Height
(another great aide to get out)
You can even add a KW amp/linear..

However if you are are in a bad location.
You can hear little to nothing
(and not be heard by anyone but locals)

If though you have a Good Location..
Then add a Good Antenna (use good feedline too btw )
Raise up your antenna to a good height.

If you are also good at knowing how to use your gear.
Then you can consistently get many contacts.
(except maybe on the low end of a solar cycle)

I am Lucky to have salt water on 3 sides of me .
and until Hurricane Sandy..Had a Few Good antennas set up
(will redo and buy some new antennas for this coming spring)

Most recently..At home..
I used Icom IC-7000 radio...with Interceptor I-10K antenna
(mostly for 38 LSB and over the many years got many many contacts the world over...Still never heard Antartica..which i would like to get...have gotten just about everywhere else though)
 
KingCobra_CDX882 said:
I would say it is More a Combination of the two..
The Better your location...The More you are able to hear
(and return to contact)

Sure Propagation factors into your success..
However the better your location..The Better access you have to using Propagation...
(being buried in a valley kills most of ones access to most of the Propagation)

You can add a better antenna
(a good way to aide your abilities to get out indeed)
You can add Height
(another great aide to get out)
You can even add a KW amp/linear..

However if you are are in a bad location.
You can hear little to nothing
(and not be heard by anyone but locals)

If though you have a Good Location..
Then add a Good Antenna (use good feedline too btw )
Raise up your antenna to a good height.

If you are also good at knowing how to use your gear.
Then you can consistently get many contacts.
(except maybe on the low end of a solar cycle)

I am Lucky to have salt water on 3 sides of me .
and until Hurricane Sandy..Had a Few Good antennas set up
(will redo and buy some new antennas for this coming spring)

Most recently..At home..
I used Icom IC-7000 radio...with Interceptor I-10K antenna
(mostly for 38 LSB and over the many years got many many contacts the world over...Still never heard Antartica..which i would like to get...have gotten just about everywhere else though)
Click to expand...

You can have the best antenna in the best location but you won't log any DX without propagation.
 
I have found that with propagation in your favor you can get out with just about anything; I have done it. Just read some of my threads ;).
But I have found even more so that with propagation you will get out most consistently if you have a station set up like KingCobra_CDX882 has described.
Don't count on getting to the finish line first on a lame horse!

Propagation rules, and the best antenna system you can put up takes the most advantage of that propagation.

Today I listened as I repaired some coax ends to some activity on 38 LSB. I heard someone out on the West Coast that I hadn't spoken to in a few days so I keyed up and attempted to say hello. I tried on the 5/8 at 34' feedpoint - nothing doing. I went to the Merlin at 36' feedpoint. No response. I switched over to the 1/2 wave vertical at 26' feedpoint and called. He spoke to someone else instead. Then the station slipped away. After another 5 minutes or so I heard him again, so I keyed up on the 1/2 wave and called. This time he replied, "There you are, Homer. Nice and loud". I keyed up again and he apparently didn't hear me again. So I switched over to a Moxon wire antenna statically mounted in the attic at about 13' above the earth pointing West. He heard me and we had a couple of exchanges before the QSB turned us off.

I experienced a combination of working the antenna systems that were optimized to the current propagation conditions. Those conditions were changing within seconds. The few contacts I made this afternoon were all gathered in that way - chasing them down with the antenna set up that worked best for the moment.

To have the most consistent results depends on having the best antenna system you can mount, and then crossing your fingers that conditions will favor you.

Yep, you can talk skip on a wet noodle with the right conditions, but my bet is on getting better Goulash with those noodles than DX contacts.
 
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And additionally; an antennas ability to talk skip well don't necessarily mean that it will talk local well.
Talking a long ways locally is harder than talking skip.
So my desires would be to have an antenna that talks locally well and take what I get with the skip.
Or maybe have two antennas and switch between the two for local or for skip.
 
KingCobra_CDX882 said:
You are Way Wrong about that..
I have spoken the world over on 4 watts.
(with cobra 146 GTL and palamor D2500 antenna from the car..

Did even better when i changed radio to AR-3500.
( until it was stolen )

More recently with Icom 706 MKIIG or IC-7000 with Interceptor I-10K
( until Hurricane Sandy removed my I-10K )

One clearly does NOT Need a KW to get through.
Location..Location is more important..
as is your Antenna..

When Skip is Rolling it cares little of the power you are using.
But then with the right gear...in a good location and knowledge how to use it.
You can practically create your own skip
(not really,but one can consistently get out great distances when they know how to do so)
Click to expand...

I agree that you don't need a lot of power to talk all kinds of skip, but if you are trying to talk to a skip station and his receive is full of 100 watt or more power stations trying to talk to him then your 4 watt probably won't be heard till the other stations unkey.
And that might take a while to happen.
Most likely long enough that you will give up trying.
It is very discouraging to holler at someone and everytime you unkey he is already talking to someone else.
Just plain discouraging..... just ask me.... I know....lol
 
Conditions can change in a moment too. They don't remain. Since the Ionosphere (the uppermost layer of the Earth's envelope) is reacting/creating skip to the angle of the Sun constant position change with Earth rotation; the skip angles change with it. One minute a station is bending your receiver's needle, and the next you may well be hearing it fade.

Latitude plays a part as does location as well. Even the time of year plays a major role; the best skip I've experienced has been in the end of September to the end of October. Phenomenal. This daily skip on 38 is fun; but one can talk around the world when the equipment, timing, and using an unused freq's - is exactly right. Been there; done that.

But it is better to have a better antenna. If you use a 'wet noodle' for an antenna; the get on a freq other than 38LSB if you want an uninterrupted conversation. This way, you don't have to compete with the big guns on 38. I have been using just a 12 watt Navaho TRC-458 (been working on it for a local operator) and a four element Yagi beam with fine results. But if someone also keys up with a Yagi and a 1,000 watts on 38 - I'm toast . . .
 
Last edited:
Robb said:
I have been using just a 12 watt Navaho TRC-458 (been working on it for a local operator) and a four element Yagi beam with fine results. But if someone also keys up with a Yagi and a 1,000 watts on 38 - I'm toast . . .
Click to expand...

How do you like that TRC 458? Its my first SSB rig, stock (which was good), and I have been through mine many times using the SAMS manual to align the receive and transmit side. I have all the test equipment, since my main hobby is aligning FM tuners for audiophile work. I live on a small ridge, and the 1/2 wave dipole is about 20 feet up in the air at the feedpoint. Good reception, but have not made a contact with it yet, except to my Goldwing CB! :drool: Went back this weekend and verified pwr supply DC level on transmit, peaked all the transmit side, and verfied 100% modulation on AM, great carrier supression on SSB, and am transmitting dead on with the frequency. Just a stock 12 watts though. The stations in Europe, I figured they were low power too.:wub:
 
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I monitor 38 lsb all the time. I hear people when conditions are good and when they are great, I can even get back to some of them. But for now, I have a Uniden 980ssb and no amp, on a dipole. My local conditions are not so good either. I live in a hole so to speak, so all I can do is skip it off the D layer.

But when I do get out it's.... <More audio>
 
Very weird conditions, yesterday, I talked to 138 Beach Palm Radio in Miami, and Triple R in Miami at 8:30pm Central time last night. Very not normal.

Then just now, about 1:30pm Central, I talked to 05 World Radio 27 in Jamaica, and some guy in Iowa, but his numbers got cut off.

This on a Uniden 980SSB barefoot and a dipole. This is fun. :p
 
Yankee said:
Very weird conditions, yesterday, I talked to 138 Beach Palm Radio in Miami, and Triple R in Miami at 8:30pm Central time last night. Very not normal.

Then just now, about 1:30pm Central, I talked to 05 World Radio 27 in Jamaica, and some guy in Iowa, but his numbers got cut off.

This on a Uniden 980SSB barefoot and a dipole. This is fun. :p
Click to expand...

yup, been some strange conditions lately
 
That was 4 days ago and it's been absolutely dead. I got to worrying about my radio, but check on Ch 3 am now and then to assure myself it still works with the locals. LOL

I am half way between equator and North Pole and I think skip comes North with the season. People all over the South got it, but up here, zilch.
 
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