Long wire build day

 Ms B and I built a long wire antenna. It tool a while to measure for the length! It's way too long for a small flat.

Design was based on this: https://udel.edu/~mm/ham/randomWire/

"A standard recommendation (see QST, March 1936, p. 32, "An Unorthodox Antenna") is an 84' long end fed and a 17' long counterpoise (6.5' for 20m). While these lengths have been shown to work well on many bands, which is helpful if you're in a hurry to get on the air, read up on the topic and experiment."

We managed to test the antenna in July - it works very well!

Dipole build day

 Ms B and I measured and built a 20m dipole to hang between the front door and the kitchen door in our corridor. 

It works flawlessly. SWR is < 1.5 w/o a tuner, it receives reasonably well and it has revolutionised my 20m here. We also built another one which was measured incorrectly but I'll be measuring and cutting that for 17m at a later day.

10 Dipole revolution

When I was demonstrating Ms B how to measure and build a dipole I did't realise it'd dominate my usage! 

This was before we built the 20m which also made a massive impact. It also helped that we had built the dipole just as 10 openings were starting. Right now in early September 10m and 6m are slowly dying so 20 is truly dominating my ratings. It is still the 2nd most popular band here.

Another busy day on 10m

 It's hectic, it's exciting!

6m activity

 It's so nice & exciting. I broke records this week.

This is with 20W with FT-847 on the folded-dipole 6m antenna I was trying to throw away last year this time!

10m, 5W and Brazil!

 Bagged a Brasil station on 10m! That was the highlight of the radio year so far.

Magic Band: When it is open, it is open.

 

This is on the SDR, with no antenna plugged in. It's being received by just the coax cable to the antenna! It's truly incredible.

Subsequently I made two 1800+km contacts that day!