Topband: The best ears ...

[Jon Zaimes AA1K]

A few days ago I finally got around to resurrecting my screwdriver 
antenna that had met its demise many months back when a 7-year-old 
stainless steel mounting bolt suffered metal fatigue.. I was 5 miles 
down the road before a passing motorist brought it to my attention, and 
there was serious damage from its horizontal journey on the roadway.

After finding some 1-inch aluminum rod locally and purchasing a 
larger-than-previous Grade 8 steel bolt, I once again had the antenna 
mounted on my 2009 VW Jetta. I finished this up after dark yesterday 
only to discover that the motor no longer worked. Additionally, chafing 
from when it was dragged on the road surface had effectively shorted out 
about a quarter of the coil length, so it was nowhere near resonance on 
160 meters. Nor was it resonant on any other band.

I was out of time so left it be and was at least satisfied I'd be able 
to listen to HF again on my morning hour-long commute.

When I hit the road at 0830z today I was pleased to hear some early 
activity. For a lark I did try calling the W1, W2 and W3 stations who 
were CQing, but none took notice. With the IC-706 showing infinity for 
SWR and the output power clamped down to just a few watts, I really 
wasn't surprised.

About 30 minutes into my trip I heard VE1ZZ calling CQ. Again I dropped 
my call a few times, and when I stopped there was a long pause before 
Jack came back with a QRZ, then a busted call and finally getting it 
right and we exchanged reports. I was truly amazed that anyone could 
hear me with this poor antenna.

A few minutes later VY2ZM was CQ'ing, and when I called Jeff came right 
back, with an even better report than Jack had given me. Again I was amazed.

So my hat's off to these two veterans of Topband and their great ears 
who could pull out such a puny signal!

73/Jon AA1K/m