As the sun wasn’t playing ball again at the beginning of August, I thought I would try to learn to use this FT8 thingy as it seems the most popular data-mode at present.
Most of the bands were mayhem so I picked my old favourite, 60 Meters (5 Meg'). I had only ever worked about 20 DXCCs on this band since 2002 and I was expecting a very quiet place to practice. How wrong can I be! Most of the contacts were Germany and Holland with a smattering of DX including Malaysia. Altogether 63 DXCC slots worked in less than a week. Not too bad, but my understanding of what is going on and my operating techniques need a lot more work!
As I was feeling up to it, I went to the 'nag & natter' on the 11th. It was great to see real people again if only a few. A good opportunity to catch up with the news and the scandal! To finish off a pleasant evening I had a look in the shack to see all the new shiny kit. In my opinion far too complicated for me but I bet the 'youngsters' will work wonders with all that technology. Chris was in the process of setting up the club station to work FT8 by remote control. I showed him a couple of things that had held me up when getting mine going at home. Within 10 minutes G3ZMS had made a contact with Eastern Canada, and, was then called by an American station. All safely logged electronically for QSLing later.
On the 14th, as I was feeling OK, I managed to get to Ron’s funeral. There was a good turnout from the club and it was an opportunity to catch up & reminisce about the old days.
Back to radio. For some strange reason I suddenly developed a high SWR on 21 Meg. Lots of checking; antenna and connections, feeder, antenna switch, ATU, and balun. The ATU is a remote one at the end of the garden so a bit complicated. I took off its lid and got a mild whiff of smoke. Close inspection and metering - no fault found. Then I noticed a bit of black on the antenna input socket, so I checked the balun. As I started to remove it from the weatherproof box it fell to bits! The solder joint on the coax socket was only just touching. I believe Ken had a fire in his, so I was not surprised to find signs of heat near the ferrite cores. A quick dash down to Screwfix (other retailers available) and got a new plastic box. After two hours in the workshop drilling, soldering, and sawing - hey presto a 'new' balun.
Still playing with FT8 (and now FT4) with no more than 20 Watts, I have been surprised to start getting some DX. 5 Meg gave me a CE4 in Chile, LU8 in Argentina, and I was called several times by JA’s and 3C3 in Equatorial Guinea. I was even called out of the blue by Walid, OD5ZZ in Lebanon! (We usually make contact on SSB.) Later that day, I made a contact with 3B8 on Mauritius island.
I have noted that these data-modes usually include the stations’ grid locator code as their QTH. I had never bothered to take too much notice, but the 5Meg band should really only be 'locals'. Next month I’ll elaborate, as at the time of writing I have worked well over 200 squares just in the greater European area. This could be a really useful propagation tool!
Below are the first proof of long haul propo’ on 60M.
Good DXing
Chris, G4ZCS
