As 10m seems so dire here today, I shall probably give 160m FT8 a try later. Even with the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground, I am sure 160m RX results are as good as I can expect and even my 2.5W on TX gets spotted over 1000km away on FT8.
Every night that I try, I spot many North Americans on 160m FT8 RX as well as bags of Europeans. Most nights I seem to spot several hundred unique stations on topband. On RX with this "antenna" I have an S0 noise floor, which must help. How much longer?
UPDATE 1606z: I QSYed to 160m about 30 minutes ago. At first I called CQ (2.5W), but got no spots. After a period RX only, best DX
DL7CX (868km), I am now calling CQ again. It is still quite sunny here.
UPDATE 1616z: Just
M0RTP (116km) spotting me so far.
UPDATE 1715z: Lots of Europeans now being spotted.
UPDATE 1950z: A period of CQ calls resulted in
lots of spots with best DX being
LB7ZG (1058km) despite just using 2.5W to the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground.
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Stations that spotted my 2.5W
160m FT8 CQ calls this evening.
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