It's rare that we get good openings to Europe from the Calgary area.
Often can hear other Northwest stations working EU but not a squeak
here.
Saturday night was the exception. Solid signals from EU for a couple
of hours. After waiting impatiently for the "big Guns" to say their
daily hellos, I was even able to work DJ. OK and LA for 3 new ones on
topband. Now 3 new ones to many may not seem like much, but to me a
radiationally challenged station (HF2V and 800 watts), it was a GREAT
night bringing my total to a huge 69.
Modified my HF2V to add 8 ft and move much of the loading near the top
on Sunday in anticipation of more openings. According to calculations
, it should give me about a 4-5 dB efficiency improvement (50 watts to
over 100 of the 800 doing other than heating the ground). The 3:1 SWR
has gone from about 16khz to 40 kHz.
It is a great band!
Gerry VE6LB
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