String mark 2

With the impending trip and uncertainty of where / how I can set up an antenna I experimented with about 10 foot of wire from a 9:1 nun up to the window and down to the wardrobe. Far from idea but it's surprising just how far I got with no effort and 2.5W on 40m FT8: There is one 10m hit there too but I did not transmit in earnest. But the 10m reception plot is even more impressive: I can see how this "let's throw a bit of wire up a tree" can become rather fun!

Following on from me always saying it's about time I got some wire outside I have, temporarily put a 9:1 unun and random wire in the loft and connected it instead of the 20/6 fan dipole. So far, I can see my FT8 signals being received across Europe with one contact on 20m and one on 40, but it's getting on towards the evening now so I need to see what it is like tomorrow. Very un-scientific of course. Noise is high, but not much higher than the fan dipole. This one will tune down to 60m and 80m but I am yet to be convinced it is actually receiving. The fan dipole pegged out at 40m and that was a struggle - little wonder with so little wire. The YT-1200 will tune the random wire to 160m but it sets the house alarm off! The wire to the bell box runs through the loft and presumably whatever protection circuit there is in the alarm panel assumes someone has cut the wire.

My bit of wet string in the loft, or rather, my fan dipole has been doing quite well of late, albeit only on FT8 and FT4. By fan dipole you are no doubt thinking of a dipole made up of several, i.e. more than two, dipoles cut to various bands and all terminated on one coax. Well, yes, but I only ever got round to making it for 20m and 6m. But even there it has been doing well these past few weeks with all of Europe in easy reach and forays into USA as far as the west coast, Canada, South America, the top of Africa and the Middle East, plus occasional contacts in Turkey, Russia, Oman and Kazakhstan. Not too bad at all given the 20m wires are far from straight, being bent at the ends to fit and not straight horizontally either. I mean it's sort of an inverted vee with a level bit in the middle and does seem fairly omnidirectional, probably by accident but hey. It will tune on all bands from 40m to 6m thanks to the YT-1200. Since I passed the Intermediate I've set the FT450D to 30W, the maximum for the tuner,…