First HF setup and contacts

I've finally pieced together my  first HF rig, and make my first contacts with it! I've been able to hear people from as far away as Japan, but I haven't had a whole lot of success transmitting yet. Still, I'm getting better with things, and I hope that a bit more practice will leave me to doing great! Without further ado, my setup, as well as my first DX contacts!

Installation of a Wire Antenna in my Small Attic

As previously mentioned, I've recently built my first wire antenna. In order to really test it, I decided to skip the step of a temporary outdoor deployment, and just go ahead and put it in to it's final location. It was a lot of work, but I've gotten a lot better at things, and I'd say overall it works pretty well. Also, as previously mentioned, my antenna is longer than my attic, so I had do so some creative bending to get it all to fit in there correctly. Overall, I'd say it worked pretty well. The initial deployment only took me 30 minutes, plus a bit of time to feed the antenna line. Much better than the last time, for sure!

Antenna Layout

Building my first Wire Antenna

 For some time, I've been working through what type of antenna I should get. I've finally decided to make the plunge! My antenna of choice is an OCF antenna, as included in ARRL's Wire Antenna Classics, which is a great read for anyone thinking about making their own wire antenna. It has helpful tips, and quite a few great designs.

ARRL Wire Antenna Classics

I've been looking in to antennas for a while, specifically meant to be placed in a small space. A 40m yagi isn't in my domain for sure! However, I still really want to get on HF. What can I do?

Enter ARRL's Wire Antenna Classics. There is maybe 50 or so articles on how to construct wire antennas, ones that serve all kinds of purposes. Many of these don't apply to me, as I'm still limited in space, but there was definitely a couple which I should be able to take advantage of.

Antenna Tuners

I live in a small townhome, with no land to speak of. I would like to be able to talk on 80 m. Ideally, a quarter wavelength antenna is best, put at a quarter wavelength above the ground. That means 20m, or about 70 feet, which is longer than the length of my home! Given all of that, how can I get HF from my home?

One solution that I have is using an antenna tuner. There are some radios, such as the Yaesu FT-450D, which have a built in antenna tuner. While I plan on getting a radio like that some day, I've heard that a dedicated antenna tuner is far superior to a build in one in a radio. Having both should give me a bit more flexibility.

HF antennas

Someday I'm hoping to get an HF rig, to be able to talk across the world. I've been doing a bit of research both into the antenna as well as the transceiver that I might buy. This will talk about a few of the HF antennas that I am looking at.