[TVARC] HF this week

[William De Miranda]

I will share a bit of my frustration and successes on 20 M SSB phone this week. For three days, starting Sunday, I was chasing EA3JE from Barcelona, Spain. He was the only game in town with a good solid S9 signal around 14.200. But each day he had a pile-up I could not break through with my little 21 ft vertical and 200W, the max that antenna can take. I was really bemoaning the loss of my Mosley 5 bander left in Homosassa.
But today he was not there, instead I made 6(!) QSOs with Europe. Between 3 and 4 pm I worked OL100CSR ( special event: 100th anniversary of Chech Republic), IK4LZH Italy), ER4DX (Moldova), 9A9A (Croatia) and a triangle QSO with IV3UTV and a lady friend IV3OKO in different locations in northern Italy near Milan. Several of these I have worked before.
This antenna is a British made Diamond CP6AR, a 21 ft. vertical with tuned radials for 6 different bands (6-80M). No tuner needed. The antenna sits on a tripod behind the house and the bottom is only 3ft. above the grass. You cannot even see it from the street. The radials, some with traps, are at 6 ft. just above my head. It can handle a max of 200 W, and up to a few weeks ago I used it bareback with my Icom 756ProII. I made a number of European contacts that way too. Lately I added my Icom IC-2KL amp, throttled back to 200W. It is a truly amazing little antenna.
Pim Miranda, K4PIM

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