I gave up planning anything for 2 but I obtained a 3 element yagi for 6 and also a 6 meter Moxon. Two is on the back burner.

Tim

I just spent the past hour on 50.250 running JT-6M as a newbie. During that time I experience two pings and each time I saw about a line and a half of jibberish on the WSJT screen.

It's hard to tell if I was doing it correctly. I didn't see anything that looked like a call sign so it's difficult to tell if someone was responding to my cq calls but I assume they were. I guess the next move is to set up a sked with someone at the ping jockey net.

Any comments from anyone experienced with this mode is much appreciated.  My qth is in Florida by the way.  Tim 

BTW radio is an IC-290H.

Thanks for the info Allison. Right now I'm looking at a five element weighing under two pounds using a 20 ft push up mast. I've seen adds for 11 element beams available locally but they weight about 11 pounds.

All is probably moot since I live in a forestry area. In fact an antenna in my back yard would be below the lowest branch of a large tree. There are no hills in Florida.

I appreciate it - saves me some money. I dislike buying ham gear that never gets used hi.

73s,  Tim
 

Four years ago there is a repeater in Florida where the talk was about killing a newly elected politician. I don't particularly like the guy myself but that was totally inappropriate. Some days later I called the local FBI office and they told me to call the FCC. When I called them they told me to call the FBI. Kind of like FEMA today.

Tim

I just picked up a 2 meter 25 watt all mode radio as part of a trade. Up till now I've only worked HF in cw and digital modes (using WSJT on JT-65A). I would like to get into 2 meter weak signal modes such as fsk144 and jt44 as well as cw. I have no interest in FM or repeaters.

From what I've read online you need a 10-17 element beam and over 100 watts to do well. Does this mean a 3-4 element beam won't work at all for these modes? I think a small beam is more in my price range and interest level at this point but I don't want to invest in something that won't work at all.

Any advice is appreciated for a newbie to VHF.

Thanks,  Tim

My best wire antenna is a 70ft end fed with a 9:1 unun up 50ft.
Another 150 ft and would probably work well.

YRE: On fleabay a 36 inch weather baloon is $15 plus shipping.
Helium tanks on Amazon are $40 for 30 cubic foot. Correction: the FAA height restriction for marked antennas is 2000 ft. Get's one to thinking.

Has anyone used a helium baloon to launch an end fed wire. From what I've read a helium baloon will stay aloft 4-7 hours. 100 ft of 22 gauge should weigh less than a pound. The question then becomes what size diameter baloon is required to lift the wire 100 feet. Also, if not in an urban area the height restriction may be 250 feet. Think of the possibilities for field day!

At my qth I just began getting 60hz interference fro 80 meters all the way up to 10 meters. I opened up Fldigi and it's white lines 60 hz apart through our the rf spectrum. Can sone identify what electrical device may be causing this? A new neighbor just moved in next door. Thanks,

Tim

I tried to load up an MFJ-935B loop tuner on 6 meters using a 4 foot long loop but I would not tune properly. Minimum swr on the radio corresponded with minimum output and vice versa.

Tim

Most magnetic loop antennas are rated up to 10 meters in frequency. What prevents them from use on 6 meters? A loop made from a five foot  (1/4 wave) one inch diameter copper pipe would be inexpensive.

Tim

For me qsos are pretty boring esp JT65A. I can't work more than 5 stations at a time without going into a coma. Lately I've been building cheap antennas with pvc, tape, wire and glue. The process itself is the reward. Once it is built I see if it works. If not I try to improve it. If it does I think up a new project. Working qsos? Yawn.
 

I purchased a 2 meter ssb radio that runs 25 watts and just built a 2 meter moxon.

I'm curious how much power is needed for weak signal modes such as meteor scatter, tropo, and whether mfsk or olivia might be better to try.
I want a good challenge but I also don't want to waste my time if these modes require 10 element beams and a kilowatt amp.

Thanks,
Tim

Thanks for the responses. What it is which I couldn't tell from the manual is the radio defaults to 146Meg in FM mode and 144 in ssb cw.

Tim