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BITX QSO Night, Sunday, August 27, 7pm Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere

 

BITX QSO Night, Sunday, August 27, 7pm Local Time, 7277 kHz in North America, 7177 kHz elsewhere

Join us as we make contacts from BITX40 to BITX40 on 7.277 MHz in 40 meters!

To participate, call CQ BITX at 7pm sharp, your local time, on Sunday. Repeat your CQ call on the quarter hour (every 15 minutes). It is helpful if you call CQ BITX with your name and location.? Repeat your call a number of times if conditions are weak.

This is a worldwide event starting at 7pm in each time zone. The band tends to improve as the night goes on, so please call CQ and monitor through the evening.?

Report your QSO's, discuss propagation, noise, signal reports, audio reports, antenna type, etc. in this thread.

This is an undirected, scheduled event.? The BITX QSO Night relies on you to call CQ BITX to initiate contacts with other stations, so warm up that final and transmit a few calls at 7pm on Sunday.? Talk to you then!
 

Woo-hoo, that should be fun. ?I just made my very first contact ever on HF last night using my BITX40. ?

Hope to talk to some of my fellow BITX'ers on Sunday! ?

73,
-Brian KM4MLS
lostfrogsrecords
 

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Here's a drawing that a member of our local BitX40 group found.? It matches those in my BitX40 builds.



Screen Shot 2017-08-26 at 12.14.37 PM.png

 

So far have made contact with BITX40 users:
WU3Z - Glenn - MD
WA2FZW - John - NJ
W3TTT - Joe - MD

Other non-BITX40 rigs:
KD2GXN (not on BITX40) - Eric - NY

Heard, but no contact:
KB8WBK - David - OH
John P
 

I managed to work WU3Z and KN4AAG. Signals were weak, but conditions seemed marginally better than the last few weeks.

Still haven't finished the magnetic loop. Hit a slight snag (needed a part) with the controller. Hopefully, next week!
--
John - WA2FZW
 

Can't hear anything out here in Nevada tonight.?

Austin. KI7LOA?
 

I've caught KI4PSR Dave in TN, KC4LRR RJ in TN, and AA4PG Pat in Alabama. All sounding good. Hearing some other stations with low sigs. Maybe the band will get longer in a few.
[email protected]
 

I worked the following this evening:
KI4PSR in TN, ?WB5YYM in AR, ?WD9CYF in IL ?and VE3THR in Canada. ?Signals are good. ?Some static crashes and QSB.

RJ
KC4LRR
 

Worked?KC4LRR ?for my first BITX to BITX QSO.?
Thanks for hanging in there through the noise RJ
RJ ~ KC4LRR
 

and?W1LY in RI... ?Sorry about that Willy

RJ
 

Worked W1LY, VE3THR (1200 miles), and KC8WBK, Paul.?
Thanks for the contacts. The band is really noisy with lots of static crashes and QSB.?

May try again in a few minutes to see if I can hear anything from out west.?
 

Well guys...lots of static crashes tonight - that's the drag of living above all the storms to the south. Did manage to work Willy W1LY 58 RI, RJ KC4LRR 33 in TN, Randy WB5YYM 55 in AR and Paul KC8WBK 55 in MI finally at 0140 zulu. Still hearing voices (no pun intended) in the noise. Will be listening for central and west coast as the grey line moves along.
Anybody using a 40M delta loop or quad? Time for an additional antenna.
73 Tom VE3THR BITX40 V3 with Raduino and 5W @ 12.3VDC on the final.
 

I'm set up outside with an EFHW, 9:1 UN-UN, Elecraft T1 auto-tuner, and a 12 V battery. I could hear a strong stations on other frequencies but just murmurs on 7277 kHz so far.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH
CN88

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Tom, I'm using a delta loop. I did some tuning on it today and ended up with a really nice swr curve. Using a 1/4 electrical wavelength sub of RG6 quad shield for matching. It seemed to work fairly good. This is measured with the W8TEE analyzer.?
 

thanks for the info Randy. Are you taking the VF of the RG-6 into account for the stub? You have excellent bandwidth on that puppy! What AWG wire, coated or bare?
still listening for west coasters at 0424 Z. ?
Great looking setup Keith!
 

Yes Tom, I am using a velocity factor of .8 for the foam core RG6. The stub is around 7.9 meters. The antenna is coated wire. Listened late with nothing heard, but did roam up and down the band a little. Maybe we were all listening and not transmitting. I need to quit playing and finish the radio, but I am having too much fun making QRP contacts.?
Baruch Atta
 

I made a few contacts at 7 EST.? Then I switched to the 3905 CCN 40 meter net.? At net start, quite a few stations could hear me and work me.? However, by the time my turn came around, at 9 PM local, the band had closed for the most part for QRP work.? There was another QRP station in New Hampshire who on check-in was loud and clear.? But we take turns on this net, and by the time my turn came around, he was not audiable.? Oh well.
Another thing - we all found that the BitX is much quieter than other big rigs.? I compared the BitX with my Icom 718, and the BitX was much quieter using the same antenna and listening for the same signals.? Amazing.?
Joe

On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 8:43 AM, RCC WB5YYM <curtis03@...> wrote:
Yes Tom, I am using a velocity factor of .8 for the foam core RG6. The stub is around 7.9 meters. The antenna is coated wire. Listened late with nothing heard, but did roam up and down the band a little. Maybe we were all listening and not transmitting. I need to quit playing and finish the radio, but I am having too much fun making QRP contacts.?



--
73, Joe W3TTT
Thomas Noel
 

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Called CG BitX for 45 minutes on 7277 from my southern Oregon location beginning at 7pm Pacific time. No stations heard.

Thomas W Noel
KF7RSF

On Aug 28, 2017, at 7:34 AM, Baruch Atta <baruchatta@...> wrote:

I made a few contacts at 7 EST.? Then I switched to the 3905 CCN 40 meter net.? At net start, quite a few stations could hear me and work me.? However, by the time my turn came around, at 9 PM local, the band had closed for the most part for QRP work.? There was another QRP station in New Hampshire who on check-in was loud and clear.? But we take turns on this net, and by the time my turn came around, he was not audiable.? Oh well.
Another thing - we all found that the BitX is much quieter than other big rigs.? I compared the BitX with my Icom 718, and the BitX was much quieter using the same antenna and listening for the same signals.? Amazing.?
Joe

On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 8:43 AM, RCC WB5YYM <curtis03@...> wrote:
Yes Tom, I am using a velocity factor of .8 for the foam core RG6. The stub is around 7.9 meters. The antenna is coated wire. Listened late with nothing heard, but did roam up and down the band a little. Maybe we were all listening and not transmitting. I need to quit playing and finish the radio, but I am having too much fun making QRP contacts.?





--
73, Joe W3TTT

 

I set up portable outside the house for about three hours
starting at 19:00 Pacific time. I heard a few murmurs on
7277 KHz, but nothing that I could copy. I put out lots
of CQs, but eventually started tuning around. I made
four contacts with non-BITX stations. I'm not sure where the
first one was. I must have copied the call sign incorrectly.
It just emphasizes how important phonetics are! Two were in
Reno, Nevada. One was in Norman, Oklahoma. That station had
a bit of trouble copying me. I was back on 7277 KHz quite
often and put out long CQs while there.

The antenna was an EFHW with 9:1 UN-UN and an Elecraft T1
auto-tuner. The EFHW was tied to the end of a 20 ft fishing
pole. Like the last time it was deployed, The pole was
used to to hook the antenna over a branch on a tree and
let the pole dangle. That way I could have the antenna
taught. I could still it up with no assistance from trees.
The antenna would just have to droop a bit more in the
middle as the tip of the pole is quite bendy. I'm happy
with the arrangement as it will work whether other
supports are available or not.

--
73 Keith VE7GDH
 

I doubt you need any special PIN diodes, as the RF signal voltages never exceed the bias voltages.
So all diodes could be 1n4148 or 1n914. ?If I am right.

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