• Category Archives: Stories

Ten-Ten International Net #77458

1010%20logo

My Ten-Ten International number is: #77458

I love 10 m band for his outstanding propagation, long distance communication with low power during the high solar activity.

Indeed, you don’t need a serious equipment and antennas to start working on 10 m band. Because it’s a top HF band the size of antenna usually small, so it wouldn’t be a problem to build an Yagi or Quad antenna. My first antenna for 10 m band was just a simple GP (ground plane), then I tried the vertical delta loop. Of course, the most advantage was with 3-4 elements Yagi. I opened the world of stations that I never seen before. Here in USA I continued work on my one of favorite band and eventually I became a Ten-Ten International member.

See you on the 10 m band. Active on SSB, CW, PSK31.

Ten-Ten International website is http://www.ten-ten.org/

 

Hex Beam Antenna Testing

Do you know the Hex Beam antenna? Did you used it?
If not check this out. We did.
More info about antenna you can find on HEX-BEAM website.

Me and friend of mine Vlad WY6DX went to Vlad W6BVB to test a HEX-BEAM antenna. Antenna visual looks good, tiny bag and all part are nicely organized.

Time to put all parts together.

Antenna is assembled for 6 m.

What about 20m band? Easy!

Now connect a QRP transceiver. Receiving was perfect!


A full size of 20 m band HEX-BEAM antenna.

HEX-BEAM antenna passed the test!

73,
Alex K6VHF

Mirrored QSO…

CQ CQ de WY6DX…..
On photo: Vlad WY6DX (on right) and K6VHF (on left).

73,
Alex K6VHF

Camping and WAEDC contest

Me and friend of mine Alex W6AWW went to campground on last weekend. All camps near us were full of people and we decide go to Santa Barbara direction. There is many campgrounds and finally we got one of them – Rancho OSO (almost Rancho QSO). Honestly that campground not good for hamradio because located down in the canyon and all direction are closed. But we are there already and want to try anyway. I like use portable equipment because it is more fun.
Well, he had:
– YAESU FT-857
– ATAS-120 antenna
– 6 m band dipole
– 10 m band dipole
Let’s put all together and then try work. We spent just a 20 minutes to set it up.
On photo – Alex W6AWW and my portable 6 m band dipole antenna.

This is ATAS-120 just 10 ft above the ground. I put 2 wires for the best efficiency.

6 m band home made dipole (fishing rods) installed on regular tripod.

It’s me K6VHF and my equipment.

Checking the propagation on 10 m band but there is silence…

Here is you can see another antenna – 10 m band full size dipole.

The Rancho OSO is the worst place for Hamradio what I seen ever. Unfriendly rangers and bad conditions for HF and VHF antennas. Anyway we got 3 QSO, two of them are local and last one just incredible, I worked with RT4RO (Russia) on 20 m band in WAEDC contest. That was completely unexpectable but we did it. Just look at my stick antenna on 10 ft high and wall of mountains around us. That is the real hamradio and portable work! Cheers!

73,
Alex K6VHF