Thinking Ahead to Next Year

The Past Ten Days

I haven't made many contacts over the past ten days.  For most of that time, we've spent the Christmas Season at my mother-in-law's house.  It might go without saying, but I only have one radio and one antenna - and they're not at her house.

I have had to go by the house just about every day, though:  to water the cats, to feed the fish, to scoop the litter pans, to get the mail - and to try to track down a bad odor that's either "something moldy" or "something dead".  I still haven't found it, but it does seem to be abating.

However:  when I got the chance, I would sit down at the radio for 10 minutes or so, fire up the DXSummit website, and see who was calling on which bands.  I'd tune nearby, tune up the transmitter and the antenna, and then try to answer the calls.

And, on each of my last 8 or so attempts, my callsign transmission was answered on the first call.  I've rarely had this happen, but especially not 8 times in a row.  Even with the pileups with people trying to reach the roaming W1AW stations, I got through on my first attempt - even the Hawaii station on 15 meters, and even the busy Iowa stations on both 40 meters and 20 meters.  Even the busy "ARRL Centennial QSO Party" stations.  I just couldn't believe it!

This just goes to show me that there is plenty that I accomplish with my modest station consisting of a 40-year old transceiver and a couple pieces of wire strung between a couple trees.

What About Antennas?

I still need to post pictures of my "shack" and my antenna.  But I'm thinking ahead to two antennas that I would like to put up.

I'd like to put up a longwire antenna and use it to get on 80 meters.  I know very little about this, but it definitely sounds like something I want to do.

I'd also like to put up a Hexbeam antenna.  They look like this:

(This picture is linked directly from the website of KJ6YVT; I hope that's OK.)

Hexbeams are lightweight multi-band beams, with each band's pair of elements bent into a hexagonal shape.  They have good gain, a great front-to-back ratio, and they are very lightweight.  They work on 6, 10, 12, 15, 17, and 20 meters with a single feedline, and they can be put on a lightweight mast and turned with a TV antenna rotor.

These antennas are available from a few different sites; perhaps the two most well-regarded suppliers are K4KIO and NA4RR.  They're still considerably more pricey than a wire dipole; we'll get new furniture for the living room before I get a several-hundred-dollar antenna.

I need a better way to get my antenna cables into the house; I'm interested in something like the MFJ-4602 feedthrough panel if I can get a good deal on one:

What about other modes?

I've been working on my Morse Code skills by hanging out at the Learn CW Online website.  I need a lot more practice at hearing and copying Morse Code; I've still got a few letters confused (F versus L, B versus V) and it takes me too long to figure out each letter.

For real-world practice at listening, I fired up the Michigan WebSDR website (because, after all, my radio is at home and I'm not) and listened to CW conversations on 40 meters.  I found a couple people working under 10 words per minute; I found it quite hard to copy.  I'll keep at it.  I'll make sure I can copy Morse Code before I pick up a keyer.  I've seen some good deals on Heathkit HD-1410 keyers and MFJ-422 keyer/paddle combos; when the time comes, I should be able to find something reasonably cheaply.

I'm also interested in some of the digital modes, particularly JT65 and JT9-HF.  Their ability to pick signals out of the noise is really interesting.

So - maybe next year I will put up a longwire and get into CW and maybe one of the digital modes.  And then, sometime after that, maybe it will be time for the next step - the Hexbeam.

73 de Mike, K9MJA