Yesterday it was Gibraltar, and today it was Kazakhstan for two new countries in my logbook. This brings my total up to 136 I think.
Digital mode FT8 running 30 watts into my 31-foot end-fed vertical and 9:1 unun. The DX conditions sure have been excellent recently on HF. WSJT-X is the most popular software for FT8 although I have recently switched to JTDX. With FT8, you’re restricted to tiny messages, with a limit of 13 characters per message. Each message of up to 13 characters takes 13 seconds to send. There are 4 slots per minute, and you transmit for one 15-second block, then listen for replies for 15 seconds, and transmit again for 15 seconds.
This I like…
Chasing countries is the one thing I do on ham radio. I don’t do contests or chase awards like WAS or any of that. I just like to see how far my humble little station can reach.