This month 12/2020 I've been spending time working DX on 30 meters (10.136 Mhz) FT8 mode. I started the month with 48 DXCC confirmed via LotW. And now I have 140 DXCC confirmed via LotW and about 4-5 unconfirmed still. SO I worked almost or right around 100 new countries. Places like VK6 (South Western Australia) which is the furthest away from me that I've ever worked. That's nearly 19000 km. Close to being on the opposite side of the world from here.
So I was under the impression that my little 1/4 wave ground plane with 4 elevated radials was hearing and being heard really well. And I would say that for what it is...it is. Considering I'm running about 170 watts on 30 meters.
Yesterday I installed my first ever "Beverage" antenna. This is about 800 feet of galvanized steel fence wire at an average height of about 12 feet. Some places it's more like 8-10 and some it's around 15 or so. It's higher than most beverages because in places I have to drive my tractor under it.
I've just discovered that my beverage is hearing about 13db better than my 1/4 wave GP antenna. So the GP has a noise floor around -135db and the Beverage has a noise floor around -148 to -150db so 13 to 15 db better on the Beverage antenna.
Here's a sample of what I'm talking about.
Hello Tim, I did some experiments with a "fence" beverage in 2019. Had great results but couldn't use the antenna permanently besides that a blew up the baluns by mistake. Funny I saw some dutch stations in your video on 30m FT8. We are officially not allowed to do digimode below 10.140. So FT4 is legal, FT8 is not here in the Netherlands. Stupid rule... 73, Bas PE4BAS
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