Tonight was a momentous occasion. Using 5w of power into a low end fed antenna, I managed to get two contacts. The first was Chuck, KB7OGE on 30m, and the second was Don, W7DTG via 40m. It’s very odd. I can’t seem to hit hams who are just a few miles from here (probably because of the valley I live in, but my 5 watts got me all the way to Washington, a distance of about 700 miles.
Still, success!
Awesome! Welcome to the world of PSK31!
To be honest, the fact that you can’t talk to stations a few miles away but can make it into WA isn’t that odd. You’re just experiencing the the difference between sky waves and ground waves. 🙂
Yeah Ben, I realized that too. In looking at the experiments that I’ve been running wth Splat!, it’s pretty obvious that I just don’t have very clear lines of sight to the horizon in very many directions. It makes sense, but it feels odd that I can get a 599 from Washington State, but the guy who lives 25 miles from me can’t hear a thing.
Still, it gives me some hope that I’ll be able to make some contacts even with my low end fed antenna.