Best DX so far tonight is RL9L (4017km) after just 15 minutes!
UPDATE 2104z: At the moment 80m FT8 RX is behaving much like 160m FT8 with all over Europe being spotted. As yet, no DX spotted outside Europe apart from the Canary Islands.
6 Jan 2019
80m FT8 RX with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground
This is an experiment as I do not expect great things of this antenna at so high a frequency. Indeed the match is not as good as on 160m and I have made no attempt to optimise this. On the screen I am seeing lots of EU stations, and these are now appearing on PSKreporter.
Best DX so far tonight is RL9L (4017km) after just 15 minutes!
UPDATE 2104z: At the moment 80m FT8 RX is behaving much like 160m FT8 with all over Europe being spotted. As yet, no DX spotted outside Europe apart from the Canary Islands.
UPDATE 2215z: N4DB (6131km) spotted at 2149z. This is the first North American station spotted on 80m FT8 RX this evening.
Best DX so far tonight is RL9L (4017km) after just 15 minutes!
UPDATE 2104z: At the moment 80m FT8 RX is behaving much like 160m FT8 with all over Europe being spotted. As yet, no DX spotted outside Europe apart from the Canary Islands.
Roger, I'm experimenting with a beverage but the results you have on 160m with the earth electrode antenna are very good. I received only one USA station last night. Do you match the antenna with a transformer in your shack. Is it connected trought a coax cable? And how many electrodes do you use? 73, Bas
ReplyDeleteHi Bas,
ReplyDeleteAt this QTH I have one "far" ground and the shack end is connected to my mains ground. At the old QTH I used a second ground near the house with very similar results. I use a 3C90 toroid as a step-up transformer to bring 50 ohms up to the impedance of the earth-electrode "antenna". The far electrode is about 10m from the house and the inter-connecting wire runs along the garden fence at about 1.5m above the ground. At the old QTH I ran this wire along the ground with very similar DX results on 630m to the wire along the fence.
Hi Roger, can you give me more specific details on the 3C90 toroid. How did you determine the impedance of the earth electrode antenna? (might be a interesting blog post!) I would like to experiment with this kind of antenna to see if it is better as my barbwire fence "beverage". See for my experiments till now on my blog. I\m listening on 472Khz WSPR tonight. 73, Bas
ReplyDelete