Advice on Beginner HF Equipment

Looks a bit similar to

73
Ingo

I drove a hole in the semi-permafrost with a piece of re-bar and inserted the spike base, UHF connector and my 2.9uH coil with the 5.6M whip on top. With eight 3.5M silcone-insulated wires lying on the snow, I had no problem getting the antenna to resonate on 30 metres using my NanoVNA. I hope to be able to work the locals on my upcoming trip to ZL1.
72 de va3rr
1911z25.01.16www.reversebeacon.net

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Update: I did the thing.

I bought a KX2, PAR-EndFedz 20m EFHW antenna, and mast. I have received everything but the mast. I clamped one end of the antenna to a sewer vent pipe on my roof (maybe 10m tall?) and draped the other end out into the yard as a “sloper,” I believe it’s called. Was on 14.300MHz and I couldn’t hear a thing nor make any contacts. I could barely make out some voices on 14.15 but it was totally unintelligible. Going to test it out with a local when I get the chance. Then when I get the mast I will attempt SOTA with it

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Congrats! Don’t be surprised if you struggle to hear anyone on 20 - you are WAY far north of most of the action. Try 17, 15, and 10 as well.

I will keep an eye out for your spots and try to make a QSO with you.

Time of day is everything Robert!
As Josh said as well. It’s a matter of being on the right HF band at the right time of day and if the propagation gods smile on you, the world is your oyster even when running low power to a limited antenna.
Don’t give up. I think your first attempt was simply bad timing.
If you can find your nearest Ionosonde in this list
https://giro.uml.edu/ionoweb/
Keep an eye out for the MUF to go high and you want to be on the band below the frequency - so if the MUF is at 18 MHz - try 20m (14MHz) and so on.

73 Ed DD5LP.

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Thanks Ed. Trying to understand this link. I think the nearest Ionosonde is Eielson. (Google the recent F35 crash at Eielson for a crazy video, BTW).

For 8 FEB 2025, at the most recent time (10:52 UTC) it tells me MUF (D) was 15.710. Would that indicate 14MHz might be good? If you had a recommendation on where to learn how to interpret this ionogram that would help. In the meantime I’ll be googling some answers. One last question, it seems these ionograms are only showing data from the recent past. If I were planning a SOTA I would want to look at a near future forecast, what would be your recommendation for that?

A way to quickly tell if a band is open is to tune over to the FT8 frequency. If you don’t hear a cacophony of FT8, the band is probably not going to work for you.

Another strategy is to keep an eye on SOTA Watch and see what bands others are doing. This is also a good way to get Summit-to-Summit contacts =)

Another trick is to call CQ (using CW or FT8) and then take a look to see if RBN is picking you up: https://www.reversebeacon.net/

This is also a good way to test different antennas - each RBN station that picks you up gives a signal strength. You can A/B bettween antennas that you wish to test, and observe the locations and signal strengths of any stations that pick you up.

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Hi Robert your reading is correct 15MHz - 3000km MUF - try 20m.
For Europe there is a site that makes the Ionosonde data into a nice graph so you can see trends, ( PROPquest | Graphs) unfortunately, I know of no such site for North America.
The latest ionosonde data is normally between 2 and 15 minutes old and no there is no way to tell what the MUF will be tomorrow at the time you want to head to a summit.
You can look at the current day and “hope” that things wont change very much and around the same time tomorrow, the MUF might be around the same frequency. But things like Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) can mess that all up and as we’ve just had two hit the Ionosphere, all bets are off for things being the same tomorrow as today!
Space weather is a full science and there are no simple answers. It’s worth watching the “Space Weather Woman” .Tamitha Skov - https://www.spaceweatherwoman.com/

She will predict what may be coming in the following days, but they are only predictions and while forecasting is getting better - its not a perfect science.

There are generalisms for conditions at different times of day and different seasons in the year and the best source for that sort of information will be from other hams in Alaska as your location on the earth’s globe also has an effect.

Sorry if this all sounds a bit hit and miss. It is somewhat but you WILL start hearing stations and getting out with the Elecraft and wire antenna. It’ll be worth it. Don’t lose hope.

Once you know what conditions tend to be like on what bands from where you are, you’ll be able to get on the “right” bands at the “right” times.

73 Ed.

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Buy once; cry once: Get the KX2! I love mine. I started with Lab599, have owned 2 TX500s, and will never purchase another Lab599 product, ever, ever. The KX2 takes a bit on the front end to learn the keyboard and menu system, which both make a lot of sense after spending just a bit of time with the manual. I think it’s the best SOTA radio available today for those of us still using SSB and the Elecraft customer service is touchstone. The other company I mentioned, not so much.

73,
Mike

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Gets my vote. I’ve carried one up some pretty big hills.

I am lucky, where I live and operate I can often get plenty of 2m FM contacts with a hand held and a decent antenna. I also use a KX2 with tuner and an EFHW.

If I had the challenge of needing distant contacts in a poor propogation area I’d be using it again.

I am expecting it to come out when the solar cycle drops to the bottom.

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