10m, 5W and Brazil!

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

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Today wasn't that bad

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  I didn't have my usual assistant so the little sheep helped instead. Not a bad evening. After moping most of the day finally (yesterday depressed me to no ends) I got out just before 4PM and drove to the usual location and put up the antennas on top of the car. Then I got the FT-847 out - this time microphone included - and hollered a couple of CQs. Once more the US was very strong, heard lots of people from MN and Ohio, even all they way to Nebraska. I was putting out about 25-50W and once more, no one heard me or responded. I start to wonder if FT-818 was a bad idea with its QRP levels! I still love it to be honest, and FT-847 is also a fantastic radio. Later I gave up on 20, tried 40 and 80 but I couldn't get the multi-band tuned up. Then I went onto 145.500 and with the dipole on top of the bonnet (visible behind the sheep) tried a couple of CQs and a G4 from Cirencester responded so we had a nice QSO.  Then I packed up the radios, drove a short distance and tried some n...
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Bicycle Wheel Mag Loop

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A while back I stumbled upon  VK3YE 's excellent video about building a mag loop antenna out of a bicycle wheel. Building some type of loop like this has been in my mind for a long time so I shopped for variable capacitors that could handle this on eBay and got some junk. They weren't cheap. Overall I spent way too much money on this antenna compared to something off the shelf like a number of Am-Pro sticks could have been bought but that's not the fun (or frustration) part of it. I have had some MTB wheels in the garage for years, collected from bikes that have gone to the Rust section of the Silicon Heaven.  So finally this Saturday I got off the couch and wandered down to the garage. After checking out the two front and two back spares, I picked the one that's in worst shape, a front wheel with scored rims which came out of an old Raleigh bike i had picked up from Freecycle which was beyond any meaningful repair. The rim was in a relatively good rust-free shape and t...
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Antenna analyzer - ordered

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