Morse using Inexpensive Stations

Started by RadioRay, September 14, 2017, 10:27:15 AM

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RadioRay

September 14, 2017, 10:27:15 AM Last Edit: September 14, 2017, 03:49:23 PM by RadioRay
Literally the other side of the world; that was this morning.  The operator on the other end is part of a French Antarctic expedition, sending from aboard their ship - FT5XT/mm.  My station is an older Kenwood that a friend found at a truck stop and sold to me for $450.  My antenna is a piece of house wire formed into an 80 meter horizontal loop up only 15 feet. I looks like this contact was 40 meter band long path along the greyline to reach him, 12,717 miles distant.  Not bad for a sub-urban ham with a fairly common station.

Morse/CW is what makes this possible.  SSB would not have made it, signal levels were too low.

"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

cockpitbob

#1
September 14, 2017, 10:41:22 AM
Awesome! 8)


I'll never forget my QSO with RI1ANT in Antarctica 10,700 miles away using my Ten-Tec R4020 and 63' wire EFHW antenna.  Power was probably 3W because shortly after looking up who he was, doing my happy dance and logging the contact, the rig switched itself off due to low batteries.
When the propagation God's are smiling on you CW is just amazing.

gil

#2
September 14, 2017, 01:48:18 PM
Great job Ray! My best one was Estonia from Florida on 1.3W... 5300 mile I think. CW of course. I need to spend more time listening, and reinstall an antenna at my house.

Is your loop a full wave?

Gil

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

RadioRay

#3
September 14, 2017, 02:07:02 PM
yes - full wave, 80 meter loop for NVIS. This contact was on 40 meters.

-...-

Bob -  ha ha ! who knows how LITTLE power was really involved before your QRP rig passed-out from exhaustion ?!?! 
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

caulktel

#4
September 14, 2017, 05:04:08 PM
Quote from: cockpitbob on September 14, 2017, 10:41:22 AM
Awesome! 8)


I'll never forget my QSO with RI1ANT in Antarctica 10,700 miles away using my Ten-Tec R4020 and 63' wire EFHW antenna.  Power was probably 3W because shortly after looking up who he was, doing my happy dance and logging the contact, the rig switched itself off due to low batteries.
When the propagation God's are smiling on you CW is just amazing.

Bob, I worked Mike, RI1ANT also on 4/7/2014 on 17 meters SSB using a BitX17 I built. I was getting about 7 watts out of it. I'm looking at the QSL card as I type this. 10,300 miles on 7 watts! Best DX ever.

Joel
N6ALT

cockpitbob

#5
September 14, 2017, 05:11:06 PM
Joel, mega Dx on a rig you built yourself 8) .  Ham radio doesn't get much better than that!

RadioRay

#6
September 14, 2017, 09:43:27 PM
Gil = wasn't your first contact on the loop from Florida to France?  Or something like thaT?  HF Radio really is amazing.
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

gil

#7
September 15, 2017, 11:52:10 AM
Very first one to France, yes! F5IN. I can't remember the antenna, but it probably was the PAR end-fed. The radio was my K1..

Gil

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

Jon_Garfio

#8
September 16, 2017, 01:51:35 AM
Yesterday I made QSO with Russia from Spain with my Tentec R4030 and 14m wire (endfed 10 MHz).

From July I made about 100 QSO around the Word in cw using cells and 4-5w.

The only limits is the bored pileups of  the DX stations.



Enviado desde mi Redmi Note 4 mediante Tapatalk

Sapere aude

RadioRay

#9
September 18, 2017, 09:52:37 AM Last Edit: September 18, 2017, 10:04:14 AM by RadioRay
Another factor for Morse is it's simplicity. 



I am active on a few ham radio boards and the dominant topic is usually computer problems of one kind or another: Windows update kills digital software, interface box not being seen as USB soundcard, driver updates,,, cables, power supplies, boot time, configuration errors for HTML forms for EmCOMM, RF interference from the computer. ....

"how do I make my radio change frequency? My rig is not listed in this configuration table..." 

- uh, did you try turning the knob?

In Morse, a message is passed with none of that.  Yes, the final throughput is slower, but there is NONE of the set-up, weeks to purchase, hours to configure and of course, no boot-up time and typin in a message.  The only burden with Morse is a slight training burden, in that you need to learn it once in your life, then you own the skill, which continues to grow with use - and it's enjoyable.

I've worked in tech most of ly life, and for me - and your mileage may vary - I enjoy the simplicity of chatting with friends (old and new) at 20 words per minute or so, in a very relaxing, relatively inexpensive and yes - historical - manner.  I prefer that I do not get MACROS dumped on me, in fact, the one thing which will make me leave a conversation mid-stream immediately, is when I detect that I am having a computer MACRO dumped on me, not a human being... gone. If I want telephone sales calls, I can get them elsewhere.  Finally;  filters for a single tone/frequency make Morse in difficult conditions far more productive and enjoyable than voice under the same circumstances.

If we didn't had radiotelegraphy today - we'd have to invent it for me to be a happy ham.


>RadioRay  ..._  ._
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

KK0G

#10
September 19, 2017, 08:53:36 AM
Ray, you have an uncanny ability to find an image for even the most obscure reference. LOL  8)
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G

9a3iv

#11
November 10, 2018, 10:57:25 AM
Anybody tries VK3YE tiny toy or bigger toy?
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