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When I met Dave WW2R/G4FRE back in the spring he mentioned that after you’ve played with JT65A on HF you really don’t want to do HF any other way. Having had a good weekend playing with the mode, I’m inclined to agree! Of course there are provisos – this is a mode to make bare bones contacts with minimal power or poor propagation. It’s certainly not a mode for chatting!

Having said that, I have loved having the receiver running all day hooked up to the wonderful JT65A-HF program from W6CQZ with the data being uploaded to both the Reverse Beacon Network and the PSK Reporter network

The other thing about this is that when you call CQ or work someone, you can readily see who else heard you, which is absolutely fascinating.

Over the weekend I think my signals have been heard in all continents on 28MHz running anywhere between 10 and about 50 watts (depending on conditions) to the vertical. I have had some fascinating contacts and found some interesting openings.

Mike M0PRL is interested in visualising propagation data to look for openings and he kindly put together a fascinating time lapse sequence of the stations that my JT65A receiver hears over a period of 24 hours (though I confess it’s usually switched off overnight, as you will see). Congratulations Mike, this is a really great visualisation!

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