06/26/2002 | KB8LPZ Had a ball with my FT-817 and a 1/4
wave fishing pole antenna on
field day. The band was enhanced with
E skip and I had 50 ssb qso's
with 24 states, plus Puerto Rico and
two Canadian provinces. I had at
least 10 contacts on 10M, 15M, and
20M. I had about an 80% success
rate on 10 & 15m but only about 50%
successful on 20M ( it was
crowded ). I even managed one contact
on 40M but the antenna is only
1/8th wave and I don't have the
loading coil optimized. I operated for
about three hours Saturday and a
couple hours on Sunday. Some of the
contacts were a bit of a struggle but
on others I heard " hard to
believe your are QRP!". If you want to see a all around home brew
portable antenna that covers 14-30Mhz without a tuner you can see
some of the details by going to

http://forsale.goodnews.net/dudpole.html

( photos and technical details - you can make your own cheap! ).

73
de
KB8LPZ
Dudley -- KB8LPZ