I don't venture onto HF very often
but recently I've been reading about WSJT-X and as I've played with WSJT JT65 on VHF it seemed it might be fun to have
a go.
My HF setup is a homebrew
SDR transceiver
which runs just 16watts or so and
a 14MHz 1/4 wave ground plane. With a very long run of coax to the ground plane I doubt if more than half of the 16 Watts reach the feed point. So QRP (more than 5 Watts, so some would say not QRP)
and a compromised antenna
from what I'd read will fit WSJT-X
well.
No trouble setting things up, usual fiddling with
the CAT settings though. Found that I needed to set Power-SDR to ID as a
TS2000 for some reason.
My first outing was on twenty, managed a few
Europeans without much trouble but it was disappointing to discover
most couldn't be bothered with the recommended procedure and after
exchanging calls were soon sending 73. Still doesn't matter.
 |
| The screen, WSJT-X left PowerSDR right |
Working further a field was a little harder but a
couple of North American contacts were soon logged. One even going
through all the transmit periods and sending short station details:
5W DP 73.
Despite the success I found that many stations
that were good signal strength either didn't want to work me or
couldn't hear me. So I was left wondering sometimes just what power
these station were using.
 |
| The DX station |
A trip to Ten Mertes one lunch time produced this
contact, the second most distant I've ever made! Didn't know where CA
was!
I'd like to try WSJT-X on Two but not sure where to look for activity but perhaps there isn't any.
