Sunday, October 5, 2008

Rhue Hollow on the air

I spent some time yesterday hanging an Alpha Delta DX-OCF (apparently not marketed by Alpha Delta anymore) in the trees to the north of the house on Rhue Hollow.

The center of the antenna is at about 35 feet, a bit higher than the spec value of 30 feet. The ends of the antenna are at about the spec value of 8 feet. One is a bit close to the rear deck pilings, so a tuner will be required to reduce SWR.

It's a pretty nice installation; I'm hoping that as Cycle 24 gears up, I'll have good experiences with that antenna.

I'm using an FT-897D, with LDG AT-897 tuner. I connect the rig to the laptop, and run Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) and the full DxLab suite for both computer control of the rig and for logging.

I participated in the California QSO Party this weekend, but with all the station set-up (and a LOT of noise), I made only one CA contact. I made a contact with an operator in Ohio, and another operator in the Azores.

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