I was using 50W FT8. I always thought that working Japan on 160m could not be done without a good 160m antenna and a lot of power. I know much is the setup of JA8WKE, but he's certainly not the only one I heard. Unfortunately PSK reporter does not display all stations I have seen...
Info: To work Japan on 160m you need to work split. Japan is transmitting on 1908KHz and we are transmitting on 1840KHz.
4 comments:
Hello,It sounds like you have a very low-noise antenna. My own attempts at FT8 on 160m always result in stations that can hear me better than I can hear them. I wish I had room for a dedicated rx antenna - are you using separate tx and rx antennas, or is this with your H-Pole antenna or something else?
73 - John
Hello John, the amount of noise is indeed not that big...actually unexpected. The H-Pole has been tested but didn't find it good enough to keep it in the mast it has been dismantled last weekend. I do not use a separate RX antenna yet although I think that should be best on 160m. I didn't want to tell my secret yet though I can't keep it for myself. I found a way to shunt fed my grounded tower with the automatic tuner. I use 2 separated elevated radials 15m long and grounded with a 1m long copper rod near the tuner. More about the setup later! 73, Bas
Well done Bas, JA on 160m with 50w is excellent. It just goes to show how FT8 opens up the band to modest stations.
Well done Bas! Quite an achievement! Now I no longer have 'flu or a cold, I think I might recycle my Vee-beam, which ultimately proved not very good, into a 160m dipole and see if I can do anything useful with it.
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