N5YT

Well its getting summer time again here in Mississippi. That means horrendous static crashes on the lower bands as distant thunderstorms move across the south.  Last night however I had a blast for about 30 minutes or so on 40 meter SSB.  I have been spending the past few nights cleaning my hamshack and finally finished on Wednesday night.  I turned my rig on and tuned around and heard a few strong stations talking but most signals I heard were only around S6-S8. I then found a clearing around 7.190 and started calling CQ.  You would have thought I was some rare DX station as many people started calling back.  I worked about 10 stations in that 30 minute time span and received several 20-30db over S9 signal reports from stations in Florida.  This is with a 500w linear and a low multiband delta loop antenna fed with 450 Ω ladderline.    I think I will get on again tonight and maybe record a little so I can make a youtube video and upload.

So if you are just looking for some fun…give 40 meters a try.  Now that the big broadcast stations are gone below 7.200MHz, there is plenty of room to make new friends or find old ones.