XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, uk.radio.amateur, free.uk.amateur-radio

Real-World Amateur Radio

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Trying a bit of 40MHz.

Posted: 12 Feb 2022 06:27 AM PST https://mw1cfnradio.blogspot.com/2022/02/trying-bit-of-40mhz.html


I've been following with interest recently some of the posts put up by
John, EI7GL, concerning reception of the CW beacon on 40.675MHz operated by ZS6WAB.
I kept thinking to myself: 'I should have a go at 40MHz'. Then the reality
of getting a system ready for that band kicks in, and I promptly dismissed
it as untenable.
Up and running on 40MHz!


Then, reading another post from John today, I realised I'd been very
stupid: I already have a receiver for the band in the form of the SDRPlay RSP1a! I guess I'd forgotten about that after the pandemic and moving house
in the last year or so.

Well, I don't have a directional antenna, but that doesn't necessarily
preclude success these days. So, I matched-up the sloping delta, nominally
cut for ~10MHz, and found it was very happy to oblige at 1.2:1.
AA-230 Zoom analyser plot around the centre frequency of 40.675MHz, after
ATU matching.


It's a bit of a shame that ZS6WAB uses CW; I think he may find wider participation if he used WSPR or FT8, because the software is much easier
to get going than CW Skimmer, which is now rather long in the tooth, much
less user-friendly than WSJT-X or JTDX, and uses rather more computer resources.

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