The last human band

The worst is finally behind us – the dreaded June! Adios to the lowest point of the yearly DX chasing cycle.

It is amazing what a difference a couple of weeks can make to HF propagations. While the high bands are only open during the daytime hours, and while some openings are stronger than others, calling CQ becomes more and more productive. The band to be on is 10m. In the mornings, it opens long path to Europe, then short path to south and north America. Your mileage may vary, to me, the pipeline is to the southern US states of Georgia, Kentucky and the Carolinas.

Taking the advantage of a mild Norfolk winter (20C during daytime, dropping to 17C at night) I’ve managed to erect yet another “wooden structure”. It consists of two 5m long 15x15cm wooden posts which support a 9m galvanised pipe, 52mm diameter. The pipe is hinged at 4.2m and operated by a set of pulleys which allow one man to raise and lower the antenna. However getting the two 5m long posts up required two strong men. Once again, my local friend Rob proved himself as an irreplaceable asset. Each post weights 80kg!

The antenna is a home made 5 element yagi, YU7EF design, on a 6m boom. The antenna is situated 40m away from the shack, fed by a half inch hardline. More about that some other time.

What is worth highlighting is this: I finally got the 4O3A Power Genius on the air. Paired with Flex 6600M, this tandem is unbeatable on SSB. I am running it at 400W in order to comply with the Australian power limit, but my goodness, PGXL is just laughing at 2,100W output into dummy load.

Not to mention the obvious: the full LAN integration is just amazing. The setup time was literally 3 minutes. There is no cabling required: all the communication between the transceiver and amplifier are accomplished through a single LAN cable to local router.

For the sake of complete transparency: PGXL is an industrial strength unit. There are four levels of fan cooling. No doubt, some would find the fan (even on medium speed!) too loud. Myself included. The good news is that the amp does not need to be located anywhere near the radio. I intend to mount it in a rack, away from my operating position. All the monitoring is through the app, on the pc screen. Super easy.

There is another reason why I enjoy 10m band: it is the most human band of all! There are literally thousands of US novice operators between 28300 and 28500kHz running 100 watts into modest antennas who would love to make it into your log. To them, a contact with Australia or New Zealand is a highly prized one, and they genuinely appreciate it. There is also a rather large community of hams who double in CB, many of them old-timers who’ve been playing radios for years, over many cycles. They are not dx chasers; they just love to talk, and all of them are very friendly. If you crave for a human to human interaction, put out a CQ call – and you are off to a chat. If you are adventurous enough and brave to practice basic Spanish, there is an endless river of south American callers who would jump on you. The communication will turn into a funny exchange of Spanish and English, with endless repeats, greetings and signal exchanges. You’ll make them happy. Not to mention hundreds of thousands of Japanese and Europeans, always happy to talk to Australians!

Yes, the 10m band is still locked in time, living proof of what ham radio used to look like ‘before the digital modes’. A band full of happy, chatty amateurs.

Have fun!