It's been raining all frigging weekend so I couldn't do anything outside. I'd ordered a new tuner (MFJ-939Y) for my FT-991 which got here on Friday and since I had nothig better to do, I installed it. Band conditions today were completely miserable up until about 730p tonight. And, when I sy miserable, the band condition web site was saying 1-4 (out of 100) across most of the bands. I tried to find something on the air but Kahn saying something about static was all I got. About 730, I started hearing stuff.

So, I went channel surfing on 40m and found a net asking for checkins on 7.185. Dialed close and hit the tune button. Got a green light so dialed in 7.185 and threw out my call sign. Surprisingly, they were able to hear me even thoug this multi-band vertical is somewhat mediocre. The NATA net folks welcomed me in and gave me a chance to make two contacts (that's their thing). Since I'd been listening for a while, there were a couple of stations that were booming, one in NH and the other in Georgia. So, I called each of those two and exchanged signal reports. A little while later, I made contact with the Michigan State Police 150yr. anniversary Special Event Station on 7.230.

From what I can gather, the MFJ can tune just about any antenna that's better than an unbent coat hangar (and I'm not 100% sure it wouldn't do that even).

I think I'm gonna like this hobby now that I can actually communicate over long distances, which is why I got into the hobby to begin with.

one thing i have learned about this hobby, dont believe the "band condition" charts. i have made contacts around the world when those charts said the bands were dead(closed). during the late day here, the few times i can get on the radio, i hang out on 17m. the joys of that is no damn contest. seems ever since i got my licenses the only time i can get on the air there is a contest going and all anyone wants to do is exchange call signs and signal strength. i havent had a chance to get on the air in some time now though. right now im working on a new antenna system and getting a QRP rig thats small so i can go portable easier.

If you are still here, pick a freq

This is truth.

I have talked to a guy mobile outside of Moscow ( Russia not Georgia ) when the band conditions were supposed to be shit.

Which QRP rig are you looking at?

Congrats! This hobby can be very addictive. LOL.

Please don't get the idea that as long as your tuner can tune anything, you are good to go. This is wrong. There is a reason why many respectable manufacturers desing antenna tuners to only be able to tune up to 3:1 SWR. It's because anything over that is counterproductive. All your tuner does is match antenna impedance to your radio's 50 Ohm output at a give frequency. It does not make your antenna perform as good as a resonant antenna would.

BTW, It's raining like "cats and dogs" right now but I have been making CW contacts on 40 meters this evening. Holler is you want to make an Arfcom QSO. I can SSB voice or CW anywhere on 80 and 40m bands.

Congrat's! That 939Y is the best 100W tuner out there! As soon as they release a QRO version I'm buying it!

Also, don't be shy about calling CQ on a seemingly dead band. Sometimes people are just sitting there thinking "it's dead" and it's not actually dead.

RS-918SSB or the X108G. still up in the air about them.

Yeah, I was just torqued because it rained all weekend. I have all the parts to build an 80m OCFD but didn't want to try doing anything with that in a thunderstorm.

I'm glad the tuner I got at least was able to let me transmit as well as it did. The FT-991 only puts out 100W on HF so a mediocre antenna will limit where I can go. In the case of the two freqs I tried, the MFJ was able to get me on the air, inefficient as it is, whereas the internal tuner in the FT-991 couldn't get me there. Once I get a decent antenna analyzer, I'm probably going to tune the antenna that I have since I just followed the default lengths on the whips at the end of the coils. In theory, if I can tune it for the parts of the bands I'm interested in, I may not need the MFJ to do a lot of work as the SWR won't be all that high. That still doesn't get me any more gain but at least I won't be losing as much (since I don't have a lot to begin with).

I may try and get fldigi squared away with the 991 so that I can do the digital net on Wednesday. Seems like I've had mixed results being able to watch the conversations. Sometimes I get a lot of it, sometimes I get none of it.

Oh, my first contact... Newly licensed tech in 2008, 10m, ssb, Magnum Omegaforce Radio, Antron-99 antenna.  Got a guy in Brazil.  First contact before I talked to anyone local.

I do hear ragchew out there on HF.  Usually guys in the southeast, or midwest.  I swear they sound like retired truck drivers. 

Lol, my first contact was me sitting in my yard with a QRP rig. I threw my call out on 20 or 40 and got a guy only a mile or two away who had just fired up his 800w station for the night to got hunting.

Spend bookoo bux on a fancy QRP rig that can talk all over the world and I didn't even get across town on my first try.