One of the first things radio amateurs tell you once you’ve bagged your Foundation Licence is “you can work the world on 10 watts”. I guess this is true given a favourable location, good propagation conditions and I think most importantly, a great antenna. One of the QRP experts from the radio club (MM6FPI) did just that, he managed a contact with VK3EY about 120 miles north of Melbourne Australia recently on 10w from Oban. It has always been my experience as a short wave listener, if you use a decent antenna, it’s going to help. The fundamental characteristics of an antenna, such as gain, radiation pattern, impedance, bandwidth, and resonant frequency, are the same whether the antenna is transmitting or receiving. Modern transceivers have good sensitivity and selectivity, and have clever noise reduction features that can help “clean up” and improve the audio received by filtering out much of the background noise. It’s remarkable just how many tools are at your disposal in today’s radios to improve reception. But, a good antenna is always key.
A mast at my home location was out of the question. I wanted something with a good reputation, an antenna that was tried and tested, but as out of sight as possible. I Googled a lot, chatted to the guys at the radio club a lot, and watched YouTube loads too. In the end I opted for two versions of a classic HF antenna, the G5RV. Originally designed by Louis Varney, callsign-G5RV, in 1946, it has been popular ever since. It’s a dipole with a ladder line feeder to the midpoint. The full size is 102 feet long and the half size, unsurprisingly is 51 feet. It’s good for the 80, 40, 20, 15 & 10m bands and can handle up to 500 watts. The plan was to rig the half size dipole as high up in my attic as possible. It’s more or less running north-south but with the last few feet on each side turned through 90 degrees, making the antenna a U-shape. The larger antenna is a slightly sloping inverted V-shape running east-west in the garden. I can switch between them in the shack. The output of the antenna selector then feeds my LDG antenna tuning unit, then my SWR meter before connecting to the transceiver, a Yaesu FT DX1200. There was a bit of trial-and-error at first with antenna positioning, but this setup seems to be a good compromise. The full size G5RV works really well on 80m and 40m and the half size performs better on 20, 17, 15 & 12m.
It took time to set up the radio, due to the array of processing that’s available, and the need to understand how each of the parameters were affected by an adjustment. I limited myself to the 20m band initially. Tuning up from around 14.125MHz to 14.350MHz, I’d find a station I wanted to contact, adjust the VFO a few kilohertz up, and tune my antenna, then re-tune back to the station’s frequency. Sometimes it would take a while to decipher the callsign, with QRM, QSB or just difficulty understanding accents. I’d scribble down a callsign on my A4 pad along with the frequency and time (UTC). Often the contacts would just be looking for just a signal report then the operator would say thanks, 73, then call CQ again. Others would be chatting away like old friends for ages. As a method of getting some practice in, for now, I’d just be looking to engage in short QSOs. Also, I’d not attempt to answer a CQ call from a station I was struggling to hear.
I quickly realised that amateur radio callsign prefixes often mirrored that of aircraft registration prefixes. I have been an aviation enthusiast for years and this was helpful as I could generally figure out where the stations were transmitting from. During the first two or three weeks I was content to add to my log and connect with more countries day by day. QSOs with Holland, Italy, Germany and Spain were frequent, as were some of the Balkan states, Serbia and Croatia particularly. Then Bulgaria and Romania, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Switzerland, Finland, Oman and Portugal. Then I heard an odd one I didn’t recognise, YB0AGW. I have QRZ.com running in the shack and I log my contacts with their logbook facility. I had no idea where “Yankee Bravo” was from. I tapped in the callsign and was really surprised, an Indonesian station from Jakarta. A short path distance of over 7,400 miles. Excellent, I could hear him, but could he hear me? His CQ calls were being answered but it wasn’t a pile-up. Did I have any chance of success with my 10 watts and 51 feet of wire in the loft. I had nothing to lose. I pressed the PTT and transmitted my callsign. He picked out a German station. I waited, then I tried again, Mike Mike Seven Victor Echo Sierra, and paused. He came back with . . . “The Echo Sierra station” . . . Is that me?, I gave my callsign again, MM7VES. He repeated my callsign in full, I got a 5&7 signal report and I gave him the same in return with my name and location. I also mentioned to him I was running 50 whiskey into a dipole. That was my first decent DX contact and I was delighted.
Since passing the Foundation exam I’d been studying for the Intermediate licence. I took the exam a month after passing the Foundation. I passed, and acquired a new call sign 2M0VGT. I increased my power up to 50 watts. It’s generally remained at that setting ever since, except if I find a station looking for QRP contacts. With my new callsign I opened a new logbook and began “collecting” countries once again.
On day two with my new licence I was having a conversation with PY6RT in Brazil, with an operator in the principality of San Marino and with Gibraltar the next day. It seemed my transmissions were now being received more easily with my increased power. The Azores a week later and Argentina the same day with loads of other European stations during the week in between. Another week passed and I add Georgia, then Costa Rica, USA, Canada, Belarus, Algeria, Kuwait and Ukraine. I did okay with my Foundation licence and my 10 watts, but it’s easier with 50, and I’m now sometimes breaking through pile-ups too. I had broadened my scope to work other amateur bands too. I’d spend time earlier in the day on 20m, then 12m & 15m, occasionally 17m, then back to 20m in early evening, moving to 40m and 80m in the late evening. I also signed up to eQSL and Logbook of the World to try to increase my number of confirmed QSOs.
I had been aware for sometime of “CQ contest” calls, particularly on 20m, at weekends. After a while I decided to take part in one, the IOTA contest. The Islands on the Air contest takes place across the last Saturday and Sunday in July. Points are awarded for each confirmed contact, an island QSO is worth more points than a mainland contact, and the total number of different islands contacted becomes the multiplying factor for your score. There are various categories available to enter, for different power output, single or multiple operators and licence type etc. I decided not to call CQ, as I’d likely not be quick enough to log everything myself. If I was just answering calls, I could go at my own pace and I’d be okay for this, in my first contest. I’d simply answer CQ calls, receive and offer signal reports (it’s always 5-9). A serial number and an island locator number were also exchanged with each QSO. During the 24 hours I logged 12 new countries and also all the remaining UK radio regions I hadn’t yet reached, Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Market Reef, Crete and Madeira Island were nice additions too. I was also happy to log D4Z in Cape Verde on 15m, it's the callsign of the Monteverde Contest Team Club. Actually I heard this station every time I was on 15m that weekend. I think one of their Monoband Yagis was pointing directly at my house. I made loads of contacts across the 15, 20, 40 & 80m bands. I submitted my log to the organisers and only recently heard the results. I was very surprised to be placed 3rd in the Intermediate Licence, Single Operator section. I was delighted, it was great fun and I decided I’d like to do more contests.
I do like operating HF voice and enjoy working DX stations particularly. At my home QTH I suffer from rather a lot of HF background noise, and I’m likely missing stations that are lost in the noise. I’d like to be able to work away from a built up area, out into the countryside, or onto an island where there is hopefully a much lower ambient noise floor. The plan therefore is to put together a mobile setup for my Land Rover Defender. I’ll buy a smaller transceiver but with at least 50w of SSB power and with a portable mast and antenna, an ATU and batteries. With luck I can do some decent DXing.
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