Houston, We Have Contact!

     I have to be honest, I used to be a huge opponent of digital modes like FT8 and JT65. I thought that they were ruining the hobby, and I thought it would kill off modes like CW. After thinking it through and doing some research, I changed my outlook on my statement. Tonight, I gave it a try. I fired up the TS-660 and pumped out some FT8. After about 30 minutes, I didn't get any responses, but when I checked on pskreporter.de, I found that about 124 people could hear me, all from Canada, across the US, and even Brazil! I even had one report from Alaska!

    I was close to giving up but changed my plan of attack. Sure enough, when I answered a CQ call from W6HMH, he came back to me! Soon after I answered KN7K's CQ call, and that made another contact in the same evening. And for the record, these two contacts were my first ever HF contacts!

    If you're not familiar with my setup, I use a Kenwood TS-660 with an Easy Digi soundcard interface. Recently, I constructed the EARCHI 9:1 unun and use a random length of wire (here's the pdf link: http://www.earchi.org/92011endfedfiles/Endfed6_40.pdf). It was super simple to build and it works perfectly! I am also running my software on a Dell Inspiron 1521 Laptop with the Linux Mint Xfce distro.

    Both W6HMH and KN7K gave me -6 db and -10 db respectively, which for FT8 is pretty good. I am just amazed that my setup actually worked! For running an antenna around my room and getting an SWR of 1.4:1, I'll consider that a win. A few days prior, I couldn't even get my antenna setup to work.

    Soon, I hope to get on more digital modes. I just joined the Feld Hell Club and I have been a member of the NAQCC for a few years now. I can't wait to see just how many more contacts I can make. Now all I need to do is send some QSL cards in the mail...

    ANOTHER QUICK UPDATE: I received some information back from K7DD about learning CW (again, thank you so much!). Looks like it's going to be a long read, but soon I hope to learn and copy code. Before I left school for break, I 3D printed a straight key that will actually function as my primary key. I have also built an Arduino keyer, compliments of PA3HCM. The link to that super simple project is here: https://www.pa3hcm.nl/?p=1010. 

Hope to hear you on the air! Until next time...