Monday, October 17, 2011

Work on the Antennas and Some DX at Last

I’ve been thinking about improving my 30meter inverted vee. Although it’s a great little antenna it was really built as a quick fix (it only took me an hour to build) and I would like to make something more substantial with 14gauge wire and a strong centre piece. I found an interesting site on YouTube which shows how to build a good strong feed point out of PVC caps and plugs, I’m hoping to have a shop this week and see if I can pick up the necessary bits and have ago at building one next weekend.

The airwaves were buzzing last week and besides numerous contacts with the States I managed at last to make a strong CW contact with ZL, the first for a number of years, more importantly to prove to myself that my home made Cobweb antenna is working well. It's amazing when you hit some DX, I was punching the air and shouting away, I suspect the next door neighboors were wondering what the hell I was doing!

Most mornings now when I switch on the radio before going to work I hear quite a few VK stations which just goes to prove that at last the bands are picking up. 10 meters was wide open this weekend and there were loads of stations calling from the US, I think there must have been a contest on, unfortunately I was busy with other things so could not get in the action but it's another sign that things are changing for the better.

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