When I was operating out of a rucksack in the United States, I'd make my skeds for the first few hours of sun light. There are many factors in choosing your time and the first is that for the same frequency, different times of day deliver different distances... but this was for longer range comms from Idaho back to a Buddy in Colorado (1,000 miles):
40 meter - early mornings = longer range:
1. I am fresh after a night's sleep.
2. Interference from T-storms is minimal in the morning hours. (more important in the summer and in the south).
3. The bands were less far crowded in the early morning hours.
4. Long range night time propagation was still largely happening in the first hour or so after sunrise.
For close in - 0 - 300 miles skeds, I usually made the sked after the lunch break, but before we donned rucks again. This is because the "NVIS" (Near Vertical Incident Skywave) propagation was now better on 40m because the ionosphere had been charging for several hours - SO I could use 40m and shorter antennas in the noon/early after noon period, to get the same range I'd have on 80m late night/early morning, but the dipole is only HALF the size to use on 40m at thist time of day, so easier to erect in trees and tangling ground cover. A low dipole, from head high or so, was all that I needed to call friends within the same state.
Antennas were generally a dipole, or if the path had generally good, I could run a a slant wire right out of the top of the antenna coupler with 'ground' (counterpoise) wire along the ground. However, it takes very little time to put a dipole into the trees at head height and higher. A rock in a sock tied to a line is about as high tech as that method requires. For long range comms, I'd make the time put up a HIGH dipole when we made camp in the late afternoon and use it in the morning, then tear down for the hike out.
My dipole wires were wound on chaulk-line reels as found in t hardware stores. MUCH easier to deploy and recover wire antenas in the tangle of branches and ground cover. These days I'd use ladder line instead of coax, but at lower frequencies RG-8 mini and even RG-174 on the lower bands works fine.
Another antenna that I hear GOOD thing about is a half wave end fed antenna. This means only getting one wire into the three. I have not measured signal strength in an A/B manner between these and a dipole. However, many, many back country QRP (low power) people are using half wave wires now to reduce weight, time and clutter. YMMV and I do not know this personally, but the math works as far as I can see it.
Power output was generally 2 Watts on forty meters. These days I have a fancy KX-1 with four bands and a built-in auto-coupler for using almost anything as an antenna, but the dipole is still first choice due to it's HIGH efficiency.
>de RadioRay ..._ ._
40 meter - early mornings = longer range:
1. I am fresh after a night's sleep.
2. Interference from T-storms is minimal in the morning hours. (more important in the summer and in the south).
3. The bands were less far crowded in the early morning hours.
4. Long range night time propagation was still largely happening in the first hour or so after sunrise.
For close in - 0 - 300 miles skeds, I usually made the sked after the lunch break, but before we donned rucks again. This is because the "NVIS" (Near Vertical Incident Skywave) propagation was now better on 40m because the ionosphere had been charging for several hours - SO I could use 40m and shorter antennas in the noon/early after noon period, to get the same range I'd have on 80m late night/early morning, but the dipole is only HALF the size to use on 40m at thist time of day, so easier to erect in trees and tangling ground cover. A low dipole, from head high or so, was all that I needed to call friends within the same state.
Antennas were generally a dipole, or if the path had generally good, I could run a a slant wire right out of the top of the antenna coupler with 'ground' (counterpoise) wire along the ground. However, it takes very little time to put a dipole into the trees at head height and higher. A rock in a sock tied to a line is about as high tech as that method requires. For long range comms, I'd make the time put up a HIGH dipole when we made camp in the late afternoon and use it in the morning, then tear down for the hike out.
My dipole wires were wound on chaulk-line reels as found in t hardware stores. MUCH easier to deploy and recover wire antenas in the tangle of branches and ground cover. These days I'd use ladder line instead of coax, but at lower frequencies RG-8 mini and even RG-174 on the lower bands works fine.
Another antenna that I hear GOOD thing about is a half wave end fed antenna. This means only getting one wire into the three. I have not measured signal strength in an A/B manner between these and a dipole. However, many, many back country QRP (low power) people are using half wave wires now to reduce weight, time and clutter. YMMV and I do not know this personally, but the math works as far as I can see it.
Power output was generally 2 Watts on forty meters. These days I have a fancy KX-1 with four bands and a built-in auto-coupler for using almost anything as an antenna, but the dipole is still first choice due to it's HIGH efficiency.
>de RadioRay ..._ ._