Well,
Been doing a bit of JT65ing over the past few days, using the callsign A71A from QARS:
This is my friend Ali, A71BZ, I've been trying to get over to him and others the benefits and usage of low power digital modes. It seems, however, when you live in the desert, have oodles of space for antennas and can run power without anyone even noticing, SSB has great appeal....
This is the simple setup I have been using for JT65, on the left of the FT-2000 is a gigawatt rated ATU, in front of that is the remote control for a 2K amplifier from Acom, and above the ATU is a bandpass filter box of some kind. This stuff is used when they have two stations running in the same room at the same time with antennas not very far apart. How well this works is rather dubious as the preamp in the FT-2000 is clearly destroyed - running in the setting IPO results in far stronger signals that using Amp-1 or Amp-2. All is clearly not well inside the radio.
Anyhow, my 20W on JT65 is leading to signals all over Europe and as far the other direction as Japan and China. Something is working.
Now, here's the problem. When I am in QSO with someone in JT65, I really don't expect other stations to start calling me on top of the station I'm working while I am mid QSO- there's a fixed set of exchanges in JT65... as any JT65 operator will know. I understand that the call is probably a new country for most in that mode but....
Do I need to say more - this applies as much to digital modes as any other mode:
I kind of though that the digital boys were better behaved - how wrong I was.
Not done much from the apartment yet:
Being on the 21st floor is likely to have advantages RF wise - it's not so clever when the wind is extreme and there's sandstorms outside. Time will tell...
Bad news though, egh?
Been doing a bit of JT65ing over the past few days, using the callsign A71A from QARS:
This is my friend Ali, A71BZ, I've been trying to get over to him and others the benefits and usage of low power digital modes. It seems, however, when you live in the desert, have oodles of space for antennas and can run power without anyone even noticing, SSB has great appeal....
This is the simple setup I have been using for JT65, on the left of the FT-2000 is a gigawatt rated ATU, in front of that is the remote control for a 2K amplifier from Acom, and above the ATU is a bandpass filter box of some kind. This stuff is used when they have two stations running in the same room at the same time with antennas not very far apart. How well this works is rather dubious as the preamp in the FT-2000 is clearly destroyed - running in the setting IPO results in far stronger signals that using Amp-1 or Amp-2. All is clearly not well inside the radio.
Anyhow, my 20W on JT65 is leading to signals all over Europe and as far the other direction as Japan and China. Something is working.
Now, here's the problem. When I am in QSO with someone in JT65, I really don't expect other stations to start calling me on top of the station I'm working while I am mid QSO- there's a fixed set of exchanges in JT65... as any JT65 operator will know. I understand that the call is probably a new country for most in that mode but....
Do I need to say more - this applies as much to digital modes as any other mode:
I kind of though that the digital boys were better behaved - how wrong I was.
Not done much from the apartment yet:
Being on the 21st floor is likely to have advantages RF wise - it's not so clever when the wind is extreme and there's sandstorms outside. Time will tell...
Bad news though, egh?
