Living near the south coast of Ireland, one of the hazards at this time of year are the Winter gales. As Storm Diana passed over the country, I dropped my vertical antenna for 28 MHz as a precaution.
With the antenna resting a few cms horizontally above the ground and with the wind howling outside, I began to wonder if I could actually hear any FT8 signals on 10 metres? If it was a band like 20m or 40m then I would have assumed yes. But 10 metres? I assumed no.
What I heard over the next two days is shown below...
The big suprise on the 28th of Nov was hearing GW0PLP in West Wales, a distance of about 250kms. I can hear Don most of the time when the antenna is vertical but it was now just cms off the ground.
The big suprise on Thurs 29th was hearing Newfoundland! It just goes to show how well FT8 can dig weak signals out of the noise.
No comments:
Post a Comment