Hi Will & Si
Loved reading your posts Will and your Station Journal. I'd be interested to know the height of your 30m single band dipole and its orientation.
I think 30m NVIS is not something there is much information on and this would also be an interesting experiment. At 5-7m above ground a 30m dipole should give good shorter range contacts I think as I believe NVIS is possible some of the time on 30m, above 30m not.
Are you aware of DDK9 this is a good indicator of shortish range propagation to G from a small island in the North Sea off Germany's NW coast.
I can assure that 30m is always open 24 hours a day, but, propagation changes generally to much longer distances with paths in darkness, and shorter distances with paths in the sun light.
Perhaps you can build a 30m Ground Plane (GP). If elevated, it is quite easy, 3 or 4 radials (even 2 would work) sufficient, if you can get a bamboo pole say 7.5m tall to put a wire on otherwise an aluminum one. Good for DX and also working into EU. Easy to make. One could even wrap the wire in a loose helical fashion if need be to shorten it, or have the top 1 or 2m of wire go out at an angle (tied off with rope) if vertical space is not sufficient.
Activity levels on 30m is indeed the main problem. Very encouraged to hear Si G0FOZ taking up the 10123(.45) calling frequency idea. There are a number of ideas for increasing activities on 30m, I hope to share them soon. I'm currently abroad, so not QRV from G, listening via RBN.
Love your journal and will keep reading it, very helpful to cross post and link to it from forum posts, as I check the forum posts here often, so please do continue to do that if you can.
30m is a hidden gem. Even though many are aware of it, they call CQ and don't get replies, so give up. The Calling Frequency 123.45 can help resolve that in addition to other ideas to be shared soon. The other issue is the lack of dedicated antennae.
For 30m I'd recommend a horizontal dipole (or doublet which can be then even shorter) at a height of 7m or more (15m great for DX), a vertical GP, and/or an inverted L EFHW. I've used all three with great results over the years. Others that could be tried are loops, indeed anything!
Si G0FOZ has excellent results with his end fed 40m LW up 10m which works 80m and up iirc?
I'm with you on honest reports, see also the RSN reporting idea, and always love to give and know other stations PWR and ANT info, to make it mean anything!
Very interesting your observations on power levels. There's the wisdom that if a propagation path is open, then power is less important other than overcoming the other station's (local) noise level, which is perhaps the most inhibiting factor these days, hence the usefulness of RSN reports.
73 & 77
Al, G4OJW
