ZAR wrote on 12/23/13 at 18:52:44:


I was looking around at 6 and 10 meter propagation and there are internet tools that seem to indicate when the sporadic-E is good. Here is one site - http://www.dxmaps.com/six.html - and I am sure you are all familiar with this and other sites. What amazed me, though, was the heavy traffic at 40 meters to Europe and the traffic to Japan on 60 meters.

An HF rig will cover 160 meters through 10 meters and those are the bands that seem consistently "open". That might be the way to go, I am wanting to make a portable setup that the instructor my my class built. Radio, fans, speakers and such were in one brief case and the solar recharged LIon batteries and regulator were in a second case. Could talk for days out in the wild between recharges.

Re: The HAM RADIO THREAD
Reply #45 - 12/20/13 at 14:11:21 Alert Board Moderator about this Post! Quote  ZAR wrote on 12/19/13 at 19:44:42:
walterpump wrote on 12/19/13 at 16:08:24:
Dane Allen wrote on 12/19/13 at 15:46:18:
ZAR wrote on 12/19/13 at 07:49:28:
Six meters is open in the USA!

Monitoring 50.135mhz and 50.125mhz   KG4ZAR EM78


How far can you get on 6 meters with, say, 50 watts?

Anyone on 10 meters? I know it's best during daytime but just checking.


EM78 - near Cincinnati, if I'm not mistaken.
I am in southern Ontario Canada, I think near FN04 but not sure.
73's


Dane my best 6 meter contact was with 9Y4D in Trinidad/Tobago. That was 2453 miles on 100 watts. Two days later I worked him again on 10 watts.

SO if the band is wide open 10 watts will take you a long way. If it's not....50 watts will get you 25-35 miles.

And walterpump..... I live about 1/2 way between Louisville Kentucky and Cinncinatti Ohio.

Hey all you HAMS.  Bought an Azden PCS-7500H, 50watts FM on 6.  Used, and not in my possession yet but I am ready for it with antenna up and power supply waiting.  So will be trying to make a few QSO's with it.  Keeping my eye open for an MFJ-9406X, 10watt SSB & CW rig then I will have Six covered.
Working on my OHR 30M trcxv build.  All components on circuit board and next will be all the wire interconnections.
I am in Southern Ontario also, in Grid FN14fh.
73's all

My dad was a RO. He had his ham and side bands. I helped him erect a tower on top of out tract house, neighbors hated it, years before all the CC's and other laws telling a person their home was not really theirs do do as they wanted  
I would listen to him talk to others from many destinations, and of course watch him on his speed key. He built many of his own radios....some of those tubes were a work of art!

His call was W6ELE.

7351 from IK0MIL.

I wasn't the licensee, IK0MIL being the handle of the military radio at the Army School of Signals where I was posted as Courses Officer.

I had two colleagues who were the licensees (one was I0IOJ, currently I2IOJ, I forget the other)  but the three of us would stay up nights all the way to dawn (and in the summer, that can be a very pleasant time!)



We had a whole wall plastered with QSL cards !

IK0MIL's current operator is I0XNH

Aaaaahh... the good old days (when I was young... the Logical Song))

Still looking around in the area, for a starter... hows this ?

http://pensacola.craigslist.org/eld/4276752840.html

mpescatori wrote on 01/19/14 at 09:54:44:


Now that's what a ham shack should look like!

Just got my Kenwood TM-281A 2 meter mobile that will be the prototype basis for my HF self-contained, solar-rechargeable backpack radio platform. Will do a 2 meter dipole antenna to simulate the 40 meter dipole which I will need to figure out how to string up in the wild. I figure once I figure out the nuances of a 2 meter dipole I can then scale up. Kite and balloon are a couple of possibilities.

It would be nice to have a helium tank and a pump with which I can retrieve the helium from the balloon and return to the tank, all on the same battery pack that recharges in the sun. At this point, just trying to get the prototype up and running.