ZS2XD Antennas In South Africa

It is still early days for operating mobile HF now that our setup is complete. I am continuing to make adjustments to improve performance. I had a chance to operate mobile from New Hampshire, USA this evening made some interesting contacts. I began by calling CQ on 20m SSB. I was operating with the amplifier on at about 325W output. I had a pileup almost immediately and worked about 20 contacts over about 40 minutes. Early on in the pileup, I had several stations in Europe call me. I also had ZS2XD, Gerry in South Africa answer my CQ! The signal reports for our QSO were 59 both ways and I was able to have a nice conversation with Gerry. We were both surprised that the contact was as solid as it was. Gerry has a good antenna system on his end and I was on the grey line which no doubt helped.

HL5FUA Antennas On Ullung Island, South Korea

Later in the evening I decided to tune across the 40m band where I encountered Choi, HL5FUA on  Ullung Island (AS-045), South Korea calling CQ. He was working stations all around the world and had a decent pileup going. I set my drive to produce about 425W out and called him. To my surprise, he came right back on the first try! The signal reports for our QSO were 56 both ways. I believe that he was working the USA long path over Europe. Choi has a good directional antenna and was using some power. This combined with my being just on the dark side of the grey line certainly helped.

With these contacts, I have worked a total of 95 DXCCs mobile HF from our truck. I continue to be surprised at how well a properly installed mobile HF setup works. Our results are also a testament to the efficiency of the Scorpion SA-680 Screwdriver Antenna that we are using. I plan to concentrate on the low bands (80m and 160m) and see what sort of DX is possible on these bands.

– Fred (AB1OC)