Been Hamming

 With the weather changing my focus is turning more towards the ham shack.  I was trying to get 3 antennas up before winter.   The 80m Vertical at the top of the hill  is performing as expected.   Works in to Europe when conditions are OK.   Best 80m QSO was ...

 Whilst on the topic of activity worked a guy in Australia on 40m int he wee morning hours using 100 Watts into the 1/4 Vertical.   I was surprised and suspect this may be my first down under on this band....

and one more worthy of a mention Antarctica ...

 Had to rethink my antenna project at the top of the hill.   The 4 to 1 antenna switch does not operate on the 500+ feet of IFL.   The control states are 0V,  +12V, -12V and 12VAC.    Unfortunately the relays are chattering ( I think ) creating noise.  There is probably a work around but I don't  know if the effort is really work it.   The 20m and 30m verts are located just up the hill behind the house.   There may be some blockage towards Europe but its pretty minimal.   The throw off the Verts are around 30 deg!    So I am rethinking the whole " height advantage " thing....still going up but not quite as far as originally planned.

 So plan B... going to use the Switch part way up the hill similar to the one that has the 30m,  17m, 20m 1/4 and 20m 5/8...all work great!  The plan Fan Dipole is going next to the house and will be cut for 6m,  10m,  15m and 12m or something like that.   This one can be done after the snow arrives.  Also going to do a 2m 5/8 just to get on the local FM Repeater...may as well monitor when in the shack!    There is an 80m dipole aka "Sky Warmer" that I may or may not take down.   Local stuff on 80m would benefit from the H Polarization vs the Vertical as well at the vertical bounce.    I am going to stick the new 4 X1 Switch at the end of the IFL feeding the 80m dipole.     Next and final project for now will be the 160m 1/4 Vertical.  

 As far as the shack goes I have my eye on a couple of things ... need an amp want another  6-7 db on HF.   Vertical antenna are great but the radiate 360 deg...need that gain especially on 80m to get out of the noise ...YIKES.   Also looking at some kind or a radio / pc interface to get on modes like JT65.

 Down the road I have a desire to try some ling wire directional RX Antennas like the ZEP.  

So lots on the go ,  lots of thoughts and well there just are not enough hours in a day to get it done but now big deal I will get there when I get there its good to have a plan!