TopBand: KH8

[Jon Barclay AA5BL]

Well... I'm about to wrap it up.  I tried 80M CW a little, but the
RF burns my ears wearing headphones!  (Don'll have to get that fixed).

For those who've asked or wondered, I'm using an inverted-L with
about 70' vertical connected fed against a metal fence that
surrounds a neighboring warehouse (it was nice of them to weld the
joints for connectivity) and a single 1/4 wave radial suspended
10' off the ground.  I pick up about 2 or 3 dB of receive signal
when I connect the fence in addition to the flying radial, so it's
obviously doing something.  Also, the impedance is low at resonance
(like 30 ohms).  The amplifier tunes into it OK, so we just left it
that way.  The main problem is a mountain in the path to the U.S.,
so we have a minimum takeoff angle of maybe 15 degrees.  That is
probably the main reason for our subdued signals.

I am amazed at how quiet everything is atmospherically down here.
Without the line noise, it would be maybe S1 on the inverted L!
That would never happen in Texas...

Anyway, running a FT1000D with Dentron MLA2500, about 1100 W.

Hope everyone caught me that needed me (no sign of anything the
mornings I've called CQ at my sunrise, not even a JA).

Very 73,
-- Jon
KH8/AA5BL

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