20m at 1500Z.

Side note: for the last three days I’ve enjoyed nearly bottomless noise floors; been making SSB QSOs to Japan, Indonesia, and even Rarotonga. Then–today of all days–the AirBnB beside my house has turned on their aircon and it’s completely wiping out all but the strongest signals. My waterfall looks like college ruled notebook paper:

1830Z Update:

1900Z. This is wild.

I currently use a ~35' (~10m) fiberglass telescoping mast, and I love it. It's great when I hoist my 10m window line j-pole (thank you KB9VBR!) and now that I'm messing around on 20m, it's just too short. My SWR is a bit higher than it ought to be on account of ground reflection since I can't get the base of the radiating element more than about ~1m (~3') off the ground.

The antenna I use (currently, at least) is fairly lightweight, so I'm not worried about mast flexion since the wight will largely be just outside mast center.

I am not to deterred by cost, and I am trying to avoid metallic antennas for fear it will mess with my radiation patterns and SWR in a new way. I am greatly interested in telescoping options.

Are you familiar with fiberglass or carbon fiber masts which get the top to a definite 15m (~50')?

Nearly all of my operations are /P, so it really has to be fairly convenient. I recognize that these requirements may be a little mutually exclusive.

Updated 5/29/2024

This update includes information about the status of several services as we continue to respond to a serious incident involving access to our network and systems.

The ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (ARRL VEC) has resumed the processing of Amateur Radio License applications with the FCC. A more comprehensive update on the status of ARRL VEC services is available here.

There has been no interruption to visitor operating at W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station. The station resumed voice bulletins on Thursday, May 23. All other scheduled transmissions, including Morse code practice, and code and digital bulletins, will resume on Thursday, May 30. Please refer to the regular operating schedule at www.arrl.org/w1aw-operating-schedule.

After last week's distribution of the ARRL Letter, our e-newsletter service has resumed. Current editions of ARRL Club News and The ARES® Letter have also been distributed.

ARRL Store orders have resumed shipping. Orders are being fulfilled from earliest order dates to the latest. Please allow additional time for our processing.

There has been no disruption to the @arrl.net email forwarding service, though forwarding email addresses and aliases cannot be modified at this time.

Our telephone system is unavailable at this time.

We appreciate your patience as we continue working on restoring access to affected systems and services.

I have a small dilemma regarding logging a QSO, and I'm wondering if you can guide me through it. I made a contact the other day while doing POTA, but I did not capture the entire callsign. The error was only revealed after I saw their re-spot on the POTA site; if it weren't for that small glimpse, I would never know, and we'd never confirm in QRZ.

The Eagle Scout in me suggests that I should not change my logs based on the 3rd party information, but my QSO sent me a QRZ confirmation request.

On the other hand, borrowing from aviation, I am keen to "use all available resources", recognizing that so long as we have the tech and tools, we should use them, even if that may fly in the face of radio purity.

What say ye?

Man, what an amazing day which will be long–if not impossible–to forget.

In the late 90s, I observed my first partial eclipse from South Florida. Then and there I decided I needed to see a total solar eclipse. Nearly 30 years later, I made good on that little personal promise. The moment I realized I would be in position to get along the path of totality, I made plans with my spouse to do so. We saved the date and planed the logistics.

I, of course, ensured my radio was packed and fully functional; charged the battery the night before. We left Del Rio, the closest place we could find reasonable accommodations, at 0400L. By 0700L we had hoisted and strung the OCF dipole and we were ready to go in DL98rv, just under the central path of the eclipse on the side of Hwy 131 in Texas just beyond the US-Mexican border.

The Tech section of 10m was silent that early, but I kept calling CQ until I started getting QSOs, pretty much went ten in a row in nearly the same number of minutes once the band came alive.

I had wanted to participate in the research project contest, but the instructions and bonuses were a little overwhelming, but I did manage to make one QSO during totality. On the one hand, I was expecting propagation attenuation, but the QSO I made was over 1,500 miles away.

I've read over and over about experiencing totality. Photos will never do it justice. Words doubly so. If you've ever been on the fence about traveling to see totality–just do it.

Lessons learned or confirmed:

• Get there at least two days before; scout potential setup locations. We scouted several locations with our radio setup in mind. We didn't want to risk trampling on private property, and the OCF antenna (being a 7-band) has nearly a 200' wingspan on its longest dimension. We needed plenty of space while also being considerate to others who would certainly want to see the eclipse as well. We must be good stewards of Amateur Radio.
• Get lodging as near as you can, as far in advance as you can, maybe no more than an hour away.
• Set up at least six hours before C1 (eclipse start).
• Make considerations for food and toilets. I was fortunate that our travel partners had a trailer with a functioning toilet. In my eagerness, I had completely overlooked the requirement for toilets.
• Don't underestimate the value of a radio day checklist.
• A 7-band OCF dipole is absolutely unwieldy for portable ops. I love the mast I've been using, but the antenna itself is a huge pain–and a huge footprint–to get up. For future ops, I plan to go with a monoband. I am planning to make KB9VBR's 10m window line j-pole to hoist on the mast instead.
• Small auxiliary/desk lights or headlamp, red is my preference, for log work before sunrise. I was struggling to get my radio configured and my log setup before the sun came up.

I am eager for your questions and feedback!

Let’s QSO!

18:05Z QSY to 28320khz

19:30Z QSY to 28315khz

I admire @w0odl@lemmy.radio for configuring and maintaining the instance, one can only imagine how much work goes into it—thank you mate for giving us an instance catered to our interests.

Has anyone else had any issues getting engagement or replies to their posts elsewhere on the fediverse when posting from this instance’s account?

Our instance upgraded to 0.19 and it seems there are some users experiencing issues with comments and posts being seen. Are you able to see this post?

I was atop Stone Mountain in Georgia this past weekend hoping for a glorious POTA activation, dragged my spouse and kids who braved the early (for them) cold and wind and setup the 7300 only to make a single park-to-park contact… from inside the park.

How did you guys do during the weekend?

Certainly many of us use Voyager to access this instance, please update so we can continue to access our community.

Title. Methodology: Confirmed / total QSOs

I’m at 22% and curious to see what others are encountering.