[Elecraft] Another dumb one- Sunspot cycle

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I've been through the attic antenna limitation through a Solar minimum,
Julian. In your situation I limited myself to 15 watts on 20/40 meters
simply because lower frequencies were so hard to put out a signal on that
didn't make the lights blink and the phones ring. Having an antenna so close
to other devices that there's a lot of inductive coupling is a real pain. 

Still, I had a lot of fun on both bands, even at the bottom of the cycle. 20
is more of real "daytime DX" band at the bottom of the cycle, often acting
at certain daytime hours like it has for the past couple of years late at
night.  Running 15 watts into an attic dipole I've worked long-path DX at
the bottom of the cycle just as I did at the "top". It simply takes a little
more patience and learning about how the band openings work when ol' Sol is
quieter. 40 offers interesting QRP and QRPp short-skip conditions much like
80 has done for the past few years, but with much smaller antennas. I'm
looking forward to working more QRPpers running a few mW on 40 as short-skip
conditions become more common after the sun goes down. Adding 30 meters to
our band lineup really helped, too, as the MUF shifts from below 7 to up
around 14 during the lowest part of the activity cycle. 

Now that I have an outdoor antenna, I complain that my lot doesn't allow
more than about 80 feet of wire up at 30 feet or so. Still I'm grateful for
every millimeter of height and length I can get. 

Ron AC7AC


-----Original Message-----
> The downside of the sunspot cycle is simply another opportunity to 
> learn about the minimum period

Talk about turning a problem into an opportunity...

It's good to see there are some optimists out there, but I feel that some 
replies missed my original point. If you live in a property occupying about 
8m x 8m ground area, with a similar sized back yard, and are forced to use 
attic antennas because you aren't allowed outside antennas anyway, it's 
hard enough to radiate a signal on 40m, leave alone 80 or 160, and QRP 
(essential to avoid RFI problems with attic antennas) doesn't help matters.

I've never been able to operate successfully on the lower frequencies. The 
laws of physics are against me.

Thanks for the ideas, anyway.

73,
--
Julian, G4ILO. (RSGB, ARRL, G-QRP, K2 #392)
G4ILO's Shack: http://www.qsl.net/g4ilo