Transmission1

Please post all your DX reports and band conditions updates on this thread. Thanks

Think its safe to say 10m is open :-)

Yeah, open and getting better :-)

Moved to 40m after 10m died off a little and that is equally as-open. Love this hobby, amazing seeing where your signal ends up :-)
73 all, hope you're all well and enjoyed the sports ball haha

I have just been heard in Japan on 10m. Sadly not worked, but there are paths open!

Scratch that.... made it! :-)

JA7JPZ
"Mac" Masatoshi Sato
Grid Square PM98wt
Distance 5570.4 mi (8964.7 km)

30w from the Imax 2000..... Amazing :-)

Don't let anyone ever tell you that you need to spend loads of money on expensive gear and use loads of power to work the world...

This is from this afternoon till just now on 20m using 5w into my home-made end-fed wire. Still amazes me this hobby, even after all these years. 73 All

To use a Deadliest Catch analogy, I let it soak overnight and I was again impressed with the stations reached, and also with those heard! I didn't have 20m pegged as a band which was open much through-the-night for us here in the UK.....

Congratulations on your contacts, I think ? Or is this just very easy to do ? Personally I need the chase, challenge and engagement of voice dx. I just cannot see the enjoyment and satisfaction of wiring a pc up and watching an automated process. Each to their own though.

This is part of amateur radio I will never enjoy or understand... but if you enjoy it then that is all that really matters, my loss I guess.

InTheClouds wrote: ↑13 Jul 2021, 10:00 Congratulations on your contacts, I think ? Or is this just very easy to do ? Personally I need the chase, challenge and engagement of voice dx. I just cannot see the enjoyment and satisfaction of wiring a pc up and watching an automated process. Each to their own though.

This is part of amateur radio I will never enjoy or understand... but if you enjoy it then that is all that really matters, my loss I guess.

great for propagation but like you it aint my thing , there will come a time when you dont even need to be in the shack ( or has it came ) and work the world while watching telly , maybe the pc will need to be licenced and not you

HR on phone that's the thing. This computer talking to the computer stuff shouldn't be even classified for dxcc since no human can be involved in the process.

If people enjoy different sides of radio that is good... more sides = more people interested. Also if it can cut through QRM and people are satisfied it is good. It is just a personal thing for me that the contact has to be a direct result of my own instigated efforts. I am the kind of guy who even rolls his eyes at push button recorded DX calls.

I want my finger on the pulse of any voice contact made, and that contact has to be voice SSB, manually operated and found by my ears. I don't even use band scopes... I just turn the dial and listen... I just cannot enjoy any other way of doing it, that's just me each, to their own.

I want radio to be "radio", engaging, tuning around, listening to the sounds of radio, the band character, hearing the conditions, experiencing the strange phenomena, looking at the S meter and radio display, calling, deciding what to do next, relaxing and listening, where to go how long to listen or call, this is the art for me and the only way I can have fun with it.

I will have given up the hobby before I even try digital modes.... and I am not exactly a tech phobe or that old.

InTheClouds wrote: ↑13 Jul 2021, 12:28 If people enjoy different sides of radio that is good... more sides = more people interested. Also if it can cut through QRM and people are satisfied it is good.

Talking FT8 now we have pathologic situation, that no one is on ssb nor cw, all on ft8.
6m band, I hunt dxcc recently, conditions are strong, I could work many on ssb, but no one there, all on ft8 Same thing 10m. Band wide open, ssb portion is dead, all ft8 ffs. In the same time 27.555 all over EU 59+. Lucky CBer's ft8 is not there.

I imagine digital modes are of interest to hams who have done their time. ( sounds like a prison sentence) doing SSB voice dx and have
seen many sun spot cycles so it is not new for them except for some hardly appearing rare DX stations.

For now, mainly E layer hops on 11m and 10m I did that to death before also on 11m in the summers...even in summer at low point of cycle you can get
the occasional intercontinental.

As far as bends being "open", at some small signal level, every band is open all the time 24 hours a day... but do you enjoy the required operating means or not ? I have operated on bands where they are open for me and yet for others band is dead, one persons open is another's closed... depending on your station. I guess with Digital modes, bands became more open more than closed at any time of day/year/sunspot cycle time.

Since dabbling in FT8, I've been giving it a blast from my DX Commander, using only 5w and have even made contact in America.