Didn't expect this janky-arse speaker wire NorCal doublet with air core balun/choke to work at all, especially with feedpoint at 18 ft above ground level. But I just made a solid 5-7 SSB QSO with a #POTA station about 230 miles (371 km) away on 40m.
SNR on 20 and higher bands is lower but it could be location more than anything (or induction on air-core choke)... But 40 is hopping and I get low SWR on all bands below 40 so far, so I think this might be a win for portable.
Very Type-II fun combo #SOTA / #POTA three-fer this afternoon on the Appalachian Trail in Green Mountain National Forest in southernmost VT after a local hamfest. Lots of QSOs on 20m, including several local groundwave(?), and really great 2m QSOs. Managed a barely-copyable summit-to-summit with operators across the continent on San Juan Island, WA!
The AT is never not muddy here, but in spite of clear weather the skies still opened up on me as soon as I reached the summit. Got chilly!
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Friend of mine had that problem because a relay in the radio was burned.
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That could definitely be a possibility. Beyond my current skill level to diagnose.
Trying to figure out why my resonant 20m dipole and my Norcal doublet (both ~1/2 wave above ground level) seem quite a bit less sensitive to RX than a KiwiSDR station ~40 miles away using an 80-10 OCF.
The latter showed 20m SSB hopping while my setup just isn't seeing anything but the strongest signals (-117 dB noise floor on the KiwiSDR vs -120-130 dB on mine)
I really don't think it's receiver sensitivity (I hope it's not).
Does antenna length & height factor into sensitivity?
#HamRadio