A few further accomplishments on Sunday. I managed to cut six lengths of cable to have counterpoise radials for each of the HAM bands between 40m & 10m that support voice. I then strapped them all together so they really only take as much space as the longest wire. These were all hooked to the tuner. As the day warmed up to being slightly above freezing I was able to send Sam (my 17 year old son) up a tree to attach one end of an outdoor antenna. The other end I attached to the house to a hook via some line which I hope will represent a weak point if the tree swings too far. This was hooked up to the output side of the tuner.
Reception was definitely improved over the indoor antenna. I was able to listen in to a chap in Norway chatting to folks on a section of the 20m band I am not licensed to use. From NJ I think this is a reasonable success. The channel on which I could pick up weatherfax now changed from Boston to somewhere in Florida. This is probably a result of the different orientation of the outdoor versus indoor antennae. A little nervously I tried calling CQ (to open a contact) a few times on a few of the bands but had no luck.
I have been getting some great advice on Cruisers Forum which is now steering me towards the nets which observe set schedules. These are mostly during the day so I’ll look at these next weekend when I’m not at work.
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