With this dipole and my Atlas 210x I can cover 80, 40, 20 and 15. The antenna doesn't seem to want to resonate well on 10, even with a tuner. Not surprising, it was designed for 30 meters. I hear a lot of noise and get a definite peak in the noise with the tuner on all the lower bands, but wow I don't think I've ever heard things this quiet before.
Another note. This is typical activity on the bands during a non-major contest weekend. Although the anti-contesters like to tell you there's a contest every weekend, only the major ones generate wall-to-wall activity. Wait until next weekend, when WAE SSB starts. It'll be a world of difference.
Also start listening to the 40m band around 5-6 pm local. The SW BC stations should start to come in rather strong between 7.2 and 7.4 Mhz.
Absorption on 75/80 will keep the noise and signals down on that band until about 30-60 minutes before local sunset. After that, tuning anywhere between 3.8 to 4.0 should reveal many signals.
Don't forget that we're still at the bottom of Cycle 24.
Last edited by KJ3N; 09-05-2010 at 03:02 PM.
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