Unfortunately, I moved to a community that has antenna restrictions and my operating the last couple of years has been limited to local repeaters on 2m/70cm. I might try to get something in the attic for 6m, though, as the long side of my house would favor an east-west pattern for a simple dipole. Would be fun to play around with FT8 on a modest station and see where I can get with it. I still recall my first contact on 6m SSB…I immediately understood why it’s called the “magic band.”
Had to laugh when I read “800w to make up for inefficiencies” … I’d say that will do a good job of making up for it.
I’d say you got a great deal on the IC-7700; that sort of deal rarely comes along. My congratulations. I’ve sold most of my gear since moving; I still have my old-but-serviceable IC-706, a Yaesu FT-8500 with the “Mr. Potato Head” microphone, and a couple of HTs.
Somehow I suspect there are others on this forum that will chime in — look at all the shared hobbies that have appeared in this thread so far!
A loft aerial will get you out on 6 no trouble, I have recently moved from a vertical dipole the the HB9CV with great results, the dipole still has its uses for monitoring and occasional ‘local’ contacts within 2000km, but I have worked US east coast and Caribbean on that same dipole, when Sporadic-E is running there is no limit to what might come up.
I am just building a 2 element quad for 6, its got a boom length of just over a foot! so would go in any loft space.
The 706 is nice, I had both models at one point, nicer than the 7000 replacement.
HB9CV, the radio callsign of the guy who invented the special type of compact aerial in question.
Sporadic-E, the type of random (Sporadic) highly propogative atmospheric layer (E) which is seen on the 50MHz (and other) radio bands which enable huge distances (8-12,000km) to be covered with extremely modest radio equipment, at this time of year.
2 element quad is a small aerial made from two square (quad sided) elements spaced 1 foot apart on a boom that gives it direction properties and gain in one direction.
706 is an ICOM IC-706 radio from about 20 years ago replaced by the IC-7000.
so nothing special, just familiarity with the subject!
if you type any of them into Duck-Duck (and are even the slightest bit interested!) you will see what its all about, or you could just let it slide and pour a nice malt into a glass over an ice cube… aha, another hobby of mine.
I used to be a HAM enthusiast back in the early 80s TG9PB1 and TD15PB in 11m. I ended up turning that into a business and I built a 2 mt repetear grid around the country which developed into a data transmission grid. That was before cellphones killed my business LOL.
we are in our usual 28 to 35 degrees phase which lasts until the end of June and then it get hot, 35 to 45+ until August/September where it drops down slowly.
We sometimes get ‘Gota Fría’ which are super destructive storms that are life threatening, mainly due to the amount of water, we had one last year that decimated my area, most of which is below sea level as its reclaimed land, I am on a 50m high hill so only my pool pump house got damaged, 2 friends had 1m of water in their houses, it was horrible.
Thankfully thats extremely rare so normally pretty bliss really.
My work involves software, firmware, and hardware, so I can always shift gears if any one of them gets tiresome, and as a result I don’t do a lot of hobbying anymore, although years ago I was an avid scuba diver and motorcyclist. Prior to the plague I played racquetball a few times a week and softball in the summer. Softball’s not coming back this year but we are starting to play a bit of “one-wall” racquetball outdoors now, although it’s not the same game at all. Not sure if I’ll feel safe playing indoors again even if the gyms open up later this month as planned.
mmmm, we chose the villa because it is completely tiled and does not have any plants, neither of us like plants about and have no interest in looking after plants so for us its absolutely perfect!!!
