21 May 2010

Portable clifftop DXing

No updates for the last week as I was on holiday and out of internet contact. This last week I had a couple of chances to do some handheld SSB DXing with the FT817 from a Devon clifftop near Thurlestone. Although I think I stood a chance working LU2DO last night (I called and called and no-one else seemed to be hearing him), I did manage some European QSOs on 15m (HB9CVQ and a DL) and 6m SSB (IW0HLE) when running just 2.5W to a small whip antenna. I use an 8 foot long dangling wire counterpoise which helps a lot. On 6m I was just using the short helical supplied with the rig and only about 20cms long! Clifftop portable sites are magic with a decent low angle take-off, not that this matters so much with sporadic-E. In the past I've worked South America and the USA with handheld SSB.

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