If you ever get a chance would like to see your full POTA / SOTA kit. Maybe make a thread on it?

I have a very very bent 160m dipole at 50 feet fed with homebrew ladder line.

It works very well, but the 160m band is noisy, so you kinda need an amp for phone or the 160m gentlemen wont talk to you.

I do have an amp and it helps a lot

I occasionally go to the local salty beach, stick a 1/4 wave telescoping MFJ vertical for 20m in the wet sand on a stake and talk 20 watts into eastern EU easily. This pic was taken last week when I talked to Slovenia and the Ukraine on 20 watts in less than 10 minutes.


Attached File

Nothing keeping me off HF. Been posting hoping some guys here would pop up. Ten is open. Let's go.

When I got started I was a 12 year old Novice. My parents were supportive but not into radio. Somehow I got a random wire in the air, and with an antenna tuner and a Ten Tec Century 21 (CW only) got on the air. It took me quite a while to make the first contact - I was terrified to answer or call CQ - thought whoever answered would go too fast, or I would forget the code. Once I got past the first one it was pretty smooth sailing.

I wonder how different it could have been if I had been able to start on SSB or VHF FM and voice instead?

I think you will value the radio art, as it were, more because you had to work at it ( Morse ) than anything else. I had problems dealing with Morse and it took me a long time to go from 5 wpm to passing the extra at 20 wpm. The best thing they did for me was to give us poor techs novice CW privileges which got me back into using CW on the air. I don't begrudge anybody that got their ticket later, they did what was require of them. The struggle made amateur radio more valuable for me though.
73,
Rob

ETA: Enough talk, I have some wire to get into the air!

Man, that's almost exactly my story, except with an EICO 723 CW trans and a Hallicrafters receiver.  In 1961, 12 year old Novice in upstate NY with a random wire and a SPDT knife switch for antenna change over.  I was terrified when I responded to that CQ from another novice in Ohio.  I'll always remember that first contact, we did just the basic QSO data and breathed a sigh of relief.

My Dad later got his license and joined me.  My son now holds my Dad's original Extra class callsign.  I guess it runs in the family.

where in CNY?
Back then I was about 2 miles from the WA2QYT 147.00 repeater.

I was born and raised in Columbia County, NY, about 100 miles up the Hudson from NY City.

There were no such things as repeaters in those days.  Techs on 6m and 2m used AM or CW.

Right now, money. Almost all my fun money is going towards putting a new roof on the house.

Shortly after I upgraded to general I bough an Icom IC-718. Talked to a few of the "stans" on 40m within two months with nothing more than 100W and an inverted V. Hated the noise...I hate noise. Playing with the bands it just didn't give me that "fizz". I like digital modes but hated the fact pretty much every setup required two USB cables or even using a small hub, especially when it came to portable offerings. I'm watching the Icom 705 (it's going to be pricier than initially expected) and if I get some surplus stuff I have sold off maybe...I'll buy it. Infrastructure and 100% reliable communications is what makes me happy though...so that's where I tend to stay.

I don't yet have an antenna up at the new house. As soon as I can at least get my end fed up I'll be back on the air.

Sure thing, I'll put something together for a thread on what I use.

In a slight modification of the topic, how about asking "What's keeping you off of 160-meters?"

If you don't have the space for the antenna, try some coil loading to electrically shorten it.  And when one tappable coil can't get your down there, by God just add another coil!  

This was my experiment this weekend, just to see if it would work and how well.  There's a 38-foot wire vertical above the coils, with all 120 turns total, it's resonant at 1.780 MHz, and using the taps I could cover the entirety of top-band with little slices of bandwidth.  I was operating way too early in the afternoon for 160 to be very viable, but got one contact about 50 miles away with 58 reports both ways, so it works to some degree.

160?

I have a home brew 1/2 wave doublet with home brew 600 ohm ladder line at about 45 feet. It works very well

I also made a 160m coil ( 5 inch diameter ) to go below my Wolf River 80m coil and have made contacts mobile with it while moving but you really need an amp for 160m mobile because the antenna is so inefficient,

For me it's something else- complete lack of interest.  I upgraded to Extra a couple years ago, but still haven't bought any equipment at all.  

I got into radio for practical reasons- to have comms when hiking far out of cell coverage.  I have 2 meter and 70cm radios in two of the three vehicles here (haven't put one in the wife's Liberty).  I've considered getting a 10 meter radio for the military truck, mostly because I have the big military whip antenna already there, but haven't yet.

So right now it's lack of interest.  That may change someday, but right now I have other hobbies and interests competing for time and money.  Yeah yeah, I know; I'm not a 'real' ham because of it.  But then I'm not a 'real' gun enthusiast, hiker, cyclist, biker, backpacker, etc etc., at least according to the "experts" in any of those fields.  I do what I enjoy doing, I don't do to impress any group.  whatevs.  

I do enjoy reading the threads and learning the HF stuff though!  Lots of great info in here.

This right here. If one of our Elmer types has addressed this, with pics, I’ve still yet to find it.