I parked in at 14.221, crank the AL811H on and started calling CQ and was going all over. Lots of NZ and Aus though too. I heard lots i stations calling under the noise too.

The Hustler 6BTV is a beast once you get it dialed in by the way. It's nice not having to use a tuner.

Even came across Gyprat doing some DXing also.

I went to bed about 18 minutes before you posted this. Yeah, it was a pretty good night. I added at least two  new countries to my growing list. I've got power now, but still need to invest in an antenna beyond my speaker wire special.

This is cool.  I've only got a 6m half-wave dipole up, and I'm listening to a guy in Macon, GA (AE2B) whose talking on 14.210 and hitting about a 5 on my S meter.

I didn't intend on staying up and playing on the radio at all. I was so tired. But I hopped for a few and saw stations booming on the waterfall. So figured what the hell. Double digit contacts and good DX later I finally called it quits.

Give it a bit longer. They'll start waking up over in Europe. The South Pacific folks may be on now. But I've had better luck with them later in the evening, our night if their early afternoon.

It's amazing.  I'm still studying for my General, and don't have anywhere near the antenna to do this well, but in just the last 15 minutes I've heard contacts with people in PA, TN, SC, KY, CT, and MI, and one guy was talking to someone in Europe, though I didn't get the call sign.

Some guy on 14.270 is a machine, he's rattling off calls so fast I can't catch them.  Edit: it's WH7U out of AZ, clear as a bell.  

This is freaking addictive.  

It's a lot of fun. I'm still new and learning. Don't get too down on an antenna. You can do a lot with a wire and 100w. It's all I had for a while. I still use a home built EFHW a lot of times. But if you can swing it one day I definitely recommend getting at least some sort of amp and a resonant antenna. It's a game changer. It's pretty cool
when someone 8000 miles away gives you a stellar signal report.

My experiences with VK Land seem to be after 3:00 UTC. That narrows me down to Friday and Saturday nights for those QSO's.

My bane seems to be Asia. It's the only continent I'm lacking. I've heard guys talking that the US/Asia propagation starts opening up around 11:00 UTC, but I'm either already at work or still in bed after a late night chasing DX. I did get Asiatic Russia once, but the guy never confirmed me. I think he's a contester who doesn't log using our methods.

Yeah same here. I have an Asia QSO confirmed but it's Dstar.

There was a Japanese station on last night. A dude in Michigan was hearing him 59. I didn't hear squat, so I'm guessing Michigan dude was using a beam.

I need Africa as well. I have 2 QSOs with African stations but neither will confirm. I don't think they even confirmed on LOTW.

That is an understatement! My wife is starting to get annoyed at the amount of time I spend on HF. I just can't seem to get enough of it. Like ManiacRat461 said, it doesn't take a lot to do this. I made a New Zealand contact with 100 watts and 33 feet of 12-gauge speaker wire hanging in a tree. 8278 miles! It really is magic!

Yeah, right now it's a Yaesu FT-891 with tuner, and a 6m inverted L hanging from my gutter.    I've got a thread here about the...challenges...my property presents for antennas, between that and only being Technician rated, I'm holding off on anything more involved for a while.

I've had QSO's with 62 countries since May 1. Sadly, only 47 have confirmed me. I'm going to make DXCC on 20M phone or bust.

I need to get my general license, and drop some coin on some gear.

Yeah, the lack of confirmations is kind of annoying. But it's just how it goes I suppose. More reason to DX.

And 20m is doing pretty good again. Got a Russian special event station. At least I assume they're in Russia. They have a Russian call. Heard some others.

15 meters is open to the west.  Worked a couple of Australians, one in Japan, one in Alaska, one in New Zealand.

Getting into Japan and south of Japan is a challenge for me.

So far just with FT8 for Japan, Korea, China but I have found working the gray line makes a difference.

I have that problem with most of Asia, unfortunately.  I've worked most of Europe, a lot of Africa, and most of South America and the Caribbean, many of the islands in the Pacific.  Very few in Asia though.  I've never even HEARD a station in China.  I was QSL manager for a friend when he was stationed in South Korea so I did work him a few times.

Yeah I was working FT8 yesterday too, earlier I was catching pretty much the west coat of the America's all the way down to Patagonia, Antarctica. As the grayline moved Started getting Japan and down through the Polynesians and Indonesia. 27 contacts in all most confirmed on qrz within minutes.

I wish FT8 didn't bore me to tears. It can get through to some amazing places.

How high is your vertical mounted above ground level?
Did you add radials?
Thanks, and thanks for the reports.

Ground mounted. My pipe is about 23" out of the ground. Then the top of the tilt bracket is about 4" down from the top. So bottom of the element is about 3" off the dirt.

Yes on the radials. I have 28 radials. I cut them
at 1/8th wave lengths for 10, 20 and 40. According to DX Engineering the length isn't as critical when ground mounted. But I could fit 1/8th wave so why not. They're also attached to a DX Engineering radial plate. Which I HIGHLY recommend.

The biggest piece of advice I can give if you decide to use one of these. Download the DX Engineering instructions. They are much more detailed and you won't be fighting it at all. Every band is resonant across the entire band aside from 40, which I haven't messed with the trap yet and of course 80, which that's just how it goes on 80 from what I understand.

The instructions from NewTronics are terrible. Absolutely terrible. They don't really explain anything very well. Such as what is considered ground versus elevated. Originally I had mine about 5' off the ground. Well I found out that elevated is roof top and higher. Mine was in some weird purgatory that wasn't ever gonna work as it should.

Thanks.