Just made a transcontinental contact with Carl, KJ6BSO on 20m, 14.287 between 23:30z and 23:40z. Propagation was fair, copy was a 4, no band noise, signal was S3 to S6.
Just made a transcontinental contact with Carl, KJ6BSO on 20m, 14.287 between 23:30z and 23:40z. Propagation was fair, copy was a 4, no band noise, signal was S3 to S6.
Well, all reet, Charles, it was fun. Sounds like you have a much better antenna than I do because I could barely pull you out of the mud about half the time. My station is about as basic as it gets and I really need to improve my antenna systems if I ever want to get serious about this ham radio thing.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
All I was running was a basic barefoot set up. The Heil GM5 in battle mode helped I guess and I heard you clearly. We have very high iron content in our soil. Might as well call it rust.
Good ground conductivity is nice. I know my station RF ground leaves something to be desired, I'm hooked to a cold water pipe though an eight foot length of 4/0 stranded copper (the largest they had at Home Depot) but my connection point is a good ten feet away from where the pipe goes underground. I'd drive a ground rod but my shack is surrounded by a poured concrete walkway and the soil here, while not filled with iron the way yours is, might as well be made of it, it's so hard. Takes a pick and a digging bar to plant a small shrub. But, on the positive side, it's apparently got a lot of aluminum in it so it's above average in conductivity.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
Use cattle salt, comes in large lumps of rock like salt, dig a hole around your earthrod, fill with that salt.
Will take a year or longer to dissolve depending of the rainfall, and moisture.
Some catlitter fillers containing bentonite can be used as well.
Works for me, and spreading roadsalt in the winter helps too ;)
"If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop
telling the truth about them." - Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965)
“I’m not liberal/conservative, I’m anti-idiotarian.”
At some point in the last 20 years, the left moved to the center, and the right moved into a mental institution
Cor, check out my Flickr site. You'll see that I have no trouble obtaining salt.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
That was cool Carl, enjoyed the tour.
"Bacon, Beans and Limousines"
"Actually, it's a Democratic Republic; Democratic comes first".
Please don't confuse my personality with my attitude. My personality is obviously me, But my attitude depends largely upon you.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. There are several others there if you're interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279637@N06/sets/
Last edited by NQ6U; 12-18-2010 at 02:15 PM.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.