AmateurRadio.com

Back from holidays in the South of France. We had a fine time over there. The weather was good, and at night cool temperatures. Just right for a good night sleep. I put up my HyEndFed antenna for 20 meter. The portable whips were useless because I forgot the bring a good counterpoise what’s needed for optimal work. But the end fed was good. I just found out that my hand is not capable for a good straight qso with the straight key. What a sloppy keying. I am spoiled over the years with my electronic keyers. So it was only SSB on 20 meter. In the weekend there is only contest activity so I worked only at week days. Of course conditions were poor. And it was sometimes too hot for activity on air. But I could get my signal out between all those mountains. Though only Europe. No DX.

I had a wonderful qso with Lucy M6ECG/QRP/P from the beach (M6 East Coast Girl) she was using 7 watts from an Icom 703 and I was using my FT817 with 5 watts on July 24. And, my noise floor was SØ, unbelievable! I did hear a lot of SSB QRP stations. The noise floor at home is S9 on 20 m.

Also was July 22 a great day for short skip qso on 20 meter. Also worked Tommy EI2HXB, Leo PA3GVW, John MØELS, Detlef DK2NE, Tony MVØRIF, Gerard PD3GT, Per SMØFSM, G1ØØRSGB and EJØPL. Thanks to all those hams to pull out my little signal on 20m.

QRX for 3 weeks, to temporarily QTH: St. Vincent les Forts, Provence-Alpes – Cote D’ Azur, France. QRV as F/PC4T/P on 20 meter or 6 meter with SSB or CW with my FT817. Antenna is a small whip for 20m also a whip antenna for 6 meter. I have a 20 meter end fed wire, and I hope there is a tree nearby to attach my antenna. Have a nice summertime.

What means fair conditions? On 20 meter I heard no SSB at all, 5 CW stations, a few PSK31 and 1 JT65A. Oh boy. Maybe I take the FT817 with me to the South of France. It depends of how much space is left in the car. I do have a 20 meter whip antenna and a 6 meter whip. For CW I take the old Junker straight key. Good for 15 wpm. I cannot go faster with a straight key. I am spoiled by electronic keyers.

After installing WSJT-X 1.1 all my audio of my ham software (such as WSPR, JT65A, Fldigi, RCKskimmer, CWskimmer etc) settings were messed up. With the new version of WSJT-X 1.1 itself the audio was too strong and it was necessary to bring down the audio slider almost to zero. Finally I replaced the old version of WSJT-X vs 1.0 r3323 and everything is back to normal, after reset the audio settings of my ham software.

Conditions are poor again. On 40 meter almost nothing to hear. On 20 m I did hear 4 ssb stations over the entire band. I managed to work S573DX with 5 watts SSB on 20 meter.

Today I worked R3WF Alexander with 1 watt JT65A on 20 meter. I worked him before. After that qso I pulled the plug from the set. Too much RTTY noise on the bands. Too good weather outside. So I went for a bicycle tour this afternoon and shot some videos.