Another day listening to FT8 signals on 144 MHz and the map looks like I had been on 80m or 40m. All those shown above were heard with a vertical Slim Jim antenna in the attic of my house, pretty amazing.
There were 9 which were over 1000 kms with the nest DX being DF6PW at 1261 kms.
The conventional convention is that anyone using FM on 145 MHz uses a vertical antenna where as anyone using SSB on 144 MHz uses a horizontal beam.
I wonder how many guys are just using a simple vertical with FT8? A lot of people have deserted SSB because it was dead but FT8 seems to have given new life to the band. Are most stations just pressing their verticals into use with FT8 rather than putting up horizontal Yagis???
It just seems a bit strange that I can hear so many signals with a basic vertical antenna.
Addendum...
Following the publication of this post, Hardy DF6PW kindly sent on his station details...
FYI: I was operating from a hilltop QTH in JO40AQ 652 m asl. In your direction I was using the 6-over-6 homebrew stack on the right hand side of the pic attached (36m above ground) . Rig was a Icom-IC-706 boosted by a very gentle 4CX250 tube amplifier ... no pre-amp.
Hardy, DF6PW
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