NOTOM 004 Antennas, "English on air" and thoughts

Antennas:

I have dismantled the 10-80 vertical antenna and the 20-meter dipole. I wanted to perform some tests while portable (/P). I only have the EFHW antenna at 16 ft AGL with a 49:1 UNUN.

I also had to dismantle the 5-element Yagi for 50 MHz because the rotor stopped working. I need time to check my station, though.

Cw: 

I decided to dust off my keyer and go CW. I love CW. What you can do with Morse code cannot be achieved with voice unless you pump up the power. Of course, FT8 might be more efficient for some, but humans are by far the best decoders. Plus, it’s fun!

"English on Air":

Pre-orders are going great! The new book should be ready by late December. It’s a manual that helps operators communicate in English even if they’ve never studied it. The Standard and Premium versions will be ready to ship by the end of the month. The Gold edition with videos will be available in the first quarter of 2025.

Attitude: 

We sometimes have a bad attitude toward the present circumstances we live in. Let me share what has happened to me regarding ham radio. Some of you know I had the privilege to operate from OA9, the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, for quite a few years. With a simple dipole and an EFHW, I was able to reach every area of the world. Pile-ups were the norm. Then I returned to Italy, and I was no longer a "wanted" station. Of course, an "I" prefix is not interesting, and things became more challenging in terms of exciting contacts.
Chasing DX with a piece of wire (quite low, to be honest) and 100 watts is not exactly a sure shot. I felt like I could no longer enjoy ham radio. The cluster is another factor that may discourage you—when you see a bunch of stations on 10 meters reporting 59 signals, and you hear nothing, you feel like you’re wasting your time.
I began turning on my radio on Saturday and Sunday mornings just to have some local QSOs. My Yaesu 891 remained silent during the week. Why not improve the antenna system? I’m going to move soon and cannot install anything except some wire antennas where I live now.
Then something happened. I was checking the contest calendar and saw that a CW contest would take place the following weekend. I said, ‘Why not give it a try?’ I spent a couple of hours and made about 100 QSOs. I worked 38 countries—BY, VK, PJ4, FM, OH0, TK, JA, K—on 40 meters. I was thrilled and amazed. How was that even possible? I realized the problem wasn’t the antennas, the power, or the exotic call—it was me.
I made up my mind to change my point of view. I started turning on my radio to listen to weak CW signals and decode them. The tiny flame of passion lit up again. CW allows me to enjoy ham radio once more. I’m so happy now.
Comparisons are always misleading. We tend to compare what we think is important. Most of the time, though, we don’t take circumstances into account. We ought to enjoy the present without looking back, like Lot’s wife. As a matter of fact, I would love to have an OB18-6, a Yaesu 101D, and a 1.5 kW amplifier. At present, I cannot. But it’s better to be a little pistol and feel content than to live with a ‘those-were-the-days’ attitude."

Comments

Paul Taylor said…
Agreed! I've only been operating on HF for 2 months and similarly, have a small garden so just a 20.4m long end-fed antenna. But it's amazed me what I can work with that and 100W on SSB - it's all new to me, so any QSO is exciting. I've managed to work 46 DXCC entities including places like Sierra Leone and Greenland. Perhaps I need to try and learn CW as well!
December 2, 2024 at 6:35 PM
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