Look out for you Warren then!
After the frantic weekend's CQ WW contest elsewhere, 30m is a haven of peace and tranquillity with some real QSO exchanges going on!!
Best
John M6KET
Recent Forum Posts
Thank you for the post. Recently I had forgotten about operating on 30, especially since I've been working more on using CW on other bands such as 40. I needed the reminder of how fun 30 can be; therefore you will see me there a lot more often than I used to. Hope to work all of you there soon!
Warren, WQ1C
30CW #376
Kempner, Texas USA
in discussion Community / 30m Propagation » Nice to work VK on 30M
Good job, nice to work Iceland. I get spotted by two stations in Iceland almost every day, but have only worked Iceland on a couple of occasions on this band.
Will de mi0wwb
Nice to work TF3EO yesterday at 17.07 on lower portion of the band : S 559 R 539. 10.106
Just listening rather than calling does provide sometimes.
K2 5 watts and the bent doublet 90' long
john
Yes Wednesday I think it was digital noise right down into the band ..
Thanks for the info on the VK QSO really good to see the context of this and …
for the first time for a long time heard a W station on the band N2KW working GM3WUX at 09.35 one morning.
best
john
in discussion Community / 30m Intruder Watch » More data users on 10.126
On working a station in Milan on 10.126 I was overrun by FT8/4 operation, which was quite annoying, however I found that you could easily decipher between data noise and CW. CW rules!
Will de mi0wwb
in discussion Community / 30m Propagation » Nice to work VK on 30M
I was calling on 10.126 when I noticed VK2BJ on 10.114, he was calling so I answered him and he came straight back, at 19:24z. We have since emailed each other and he said he would confirmed via LoTW, although our emails have already served that purpose.
I have never worked outside of Europe either, but I have been spotted in Honk Kong and the eastern USA. Still waiting to work USA on 30M.
Will de mi0wwb
That's a fantastic result Will - many congratulations.. did he answer your call or vice versa and what time of day was it?
(At the moment I don't hear outside of Europe)
best wishes
John M6KET
in discussion Community / 30m Propagation » Nice to work VK on 30M
Am still in a state of shock, worked VK2BJ in NSW, signal was very faint, I gave 539, but the strength sounded more like a 2. I received 549, I was running 100w to a fan dipole that is not up very high, perhaps 5 to 6 metres at most. It's nice to work VK from a wire, rather than a beam!
Will de mi0wwb
Yes .. noticed this yesterday .. not in great numbers but down to 10.128.
Just had a short session using my 2E0XET call sign and the full 50 watts .. some strong RBN reports and just worked G3MCK/LZ1DSZ/IZ7GEG/EA3PP with reasonable RST's
Might try some more QRO next week!
John
Just noticed today that FT8/4 users are now coming below 10.130, I have not noticed this before.
Will de mi0wwb
This evening on 10.1265 I had a great QSO with Simon G0FOZ, we started off running 5 watts and then reduced power in increments down to just 1 watt. On one watt my report was 419. Even with a little QSB everything was readable. Much better than a rubber stamp QSO!
Will de mi0wwb
I wasn’t on air at this time, but if it was the same as yesterday, then I understand it was a RTTY transmission. Not in the spirit of amateur radio, right on the QRP portion of the band.
Will de mi0wwb
It's there again ( 19th Oct 11.35 UTC ), stretching from 10.113 to 10.116
Very annoying !
Tonight, 18th Oct, there was heavy QRM on 10.116 which wiped out that frequency and a bit either side. It appeared at roughly 10 minute intervals and last for two to three minutes in duration. The noise also seems to follow a set pattern a fluttering noise, going up and down, changing to a buzz and finally a higher pitched tone before disappearing.
Anyone know what it is?
Will de mi0wwb
Every Sunday evening from 1700-2000z QRP activity is being promoted, tonight there was some good activity on 30m. Three English stations running 3 watts, and a fourth running 100 watts, a Scottish station running 10 watts. Also worked a Hungarian station, but no PWR level was given.
This is not a contest, which of course should not happen on 30m, but a good old ragchews just for fun.
Will de mi0wwb
Many thanks both Will and Ali for your thoughts and advice: really appreciated and food for thought for the antenna.
I think I can get the feed point of the 90' doublet up another few feet but will need to compromise by folding down the ends slightly.
I have a good location high on a ridge looking out east and west but I know height above actual ground is a key factor in the performance of the dipole/doublet. Feeder point is maybe 35/40 ft above ground level.
I find it clears the mind to concentrate on the one band and really explore the possibilities /potential of 30m (despite the very good conditions on 10m at the moment of writing!)
Yes recent W8S activity from the Pacific has suddenly filled the lower portion of the band with callers - both welcome and unwelcome as it will at least remind these 'visitors' of the Band's possibilities?!
Anyway thanks again for the feedback and will keep working to activate the band- need to be a bit more of a night owl though!
John M6KET/2E0XET
PS
Yes would be good to get a few more comments on this site- it really helps to keep up the motivation to know other folks are reading and interested
Hi Ali
What a great post, a pity that there are not more folk on here.
For me the key point in your post is persistence when calling CQ. I used to be solely a search and pounce operator, now I have gone the way round. I actually prefer traffic to come to be, however I will retune to another station if I know them.
In recent days I have noticed DXers taking over the lower portion of the band, identified by just endless keying of their callsigns. Occasionally they try to call me on my freq of preference 10.126, but if I don’t hear my callsign I just ignore them. I never did work out who the DX station was!
Will de mi0wwb
Hi John, great to read your post, thank you! I have a few comments on your observations. First about the antenna. The doublet and dipole should be exactly the same though it depends on the length as to gain and lobes. However, the height is most important, and if it is less than 10m above ground it's not likely to be directional but high angle and more omni-directional. Above 10m, especially at 15m above ground a 30m dipole or a doublet tuned on 30m would have the typical broadside pattern, unless it is bent. However, the ends are not important and can be bent sideways or downward and won't affect things as the current is mostly in the middle portion and gets less toward the ends. As for picking up noise, both the single band dipole and the doublet should in my experience be the same, as they are only resonant on the one band (and some harmonics). The doublet has to be matched/tuned, the 50 ohm dipole does not. However, it can be that if the doublet is shorter than 14m long that the top part of the feedline will form part of the antenna and thus also radiate (vertical) and pick up more noise than a 50 ohm coax feed. On all the above, if anyone knows better or otherwise or I'm wrong on any of this, be welcome to comment and/or correct me.
I think Will's experience of the difference between trap dipole and resonant single band dipole is also logical: there can or will be losses with traps, it is a sort of compromise, whereas a full half wave dipole without traps is not. But again for doublet vs dipole, I'd say there isn't any real difference other than if the doublet is short or very long. You did not say how high your doublet is. The general truth is get as much wire as high as you can. And with a horizontal dipole that means the middle part to be as high as possible. If however it is an inverted vee then even if the apex is at 15m or more above ground, the pattern will no longer be broadside but more omni-directional, and, a compromise on low angle radiation compared to a flat dipole. But again, great for regional communication.
Now about contacts over the Atlantic! These are possible and EASY every single night of every year on 30m, every season and at every point of the solar cycle, with modest antenna such as a dipole up 10-15m or more, or a vertical, when the path is mostly in darkness, that is to say, from shortly before sunset at the local USA or Canadian station. It is just that there are not always that many stations active in the early evening North America side as their XYL haven't gone to bed yet or they're watching the news, eating dinner etc, and also there are not many G that go onto 30m late in the evening G time since they have stopped watching TV or eating and are going to bed with the XYL. :-)
RBN are not necessarily switched on all the time, but you should normally find being picked up if you call CQ on 30m after the local sunset on the other side, even before it. And this open 30m band (and also 40m a little later and stopping sooner) continues ALL night right up until just after dawn on the G side but longer than it remains open on 40m. SO it is indeed just a question of activity and being on between mid to late evening and early morning.
Also, from just before local G sunset right up until the local sunrise in Asian locations, i.e. again when the path is mostly in darkness, 30m is open to ALL of Africa and Asia up to Australia. For South America is the same applies, thus when you get North America or even before, you will also be able to get South America. Into Europe 30m is open 24 hours a day.
A final observation comment: I have done a lot of listening on Twente Web SDR this year while I was off air and overseas and I've all too often observed that a station calls CQ on 30m several times then gives up, and minutes later someone else does the same. Most people calling CQ don't remain persistent long enough. How long is long enough? Of course if we call all day and night we'll get an answer but that's too long. I'd say you can get lucky first call, but generally 15 minutes of calling would be long enough to get a QSO. And let's not forget some are "callers" who almost always call CQ rather than look for CQ and some are only "listeners" who reply to CQ. We'll get the best results if we do both: e.g.. call CQ three times in a row, if no reply, tune around to see if there are other CQ and note any other QSO in progress and the frequencies, if not, back to the SAME frequency as before and call CQ again. I've also often noticed that when a CQer gives up too soon and doesn't come back to the same frequency a station that needed some time to get ready (a drink, tune up?) calls back and the other station has gone. This is the reality of 30m: always open to somewhere all day and night, the only band that NEVER closes in all situations (40m can be dead due to D layer absorption in middle of the day especially at lower latitudes and 20m can be dead due to lack of F layer at night especially at higher latitudes and low solar activity). The problem as you said is really the lack of activity much of the time, which is also the fact on even 40 or 20m in some parts of the world now.
Thank you for keeping active on 30m and I hope it continues to bring both of you much joy. Indeed, it is the optimal all-round QRP band, given that the antenna doesn't need to be as high as on 40m for the same result, and the better propagation overall, and also it is a great band for CW rag chew. The other day two thirds of the entire CW band, from 10110 to 10130 was wiped out with wall-to-wall CW calling a DX station operating unspecified "up" split. Not good for a number of reasons that is a different topic of discussion, but proof of the propagation. All of Europe and beyond could be heard with hundreds of stations callign simultaneously with no gap of more than 0.1 kHz over the entire 20kHz wide pile up!
I look forward to hearing more about your experiences!
77/73 de Ali G4OJW
Hi John
The mono dipole make to differences that I noticed, firstly the noise level was lower, typically S3, my 80/40 trapped dipole was usually around S5. In making QSOs I also noticed over time getting slightly higher RST reports than I would have expected for just 5 watts. Maybe wishful thinking!!
This afternoon I had the pleasure of working one my my CWA Beginner students, he was operating from Nr Edinburgh and running 5 watts. Makes it all worthwhile.
Will de mi0wwb