While still on my extended stay at my daughter’s house in central Pennsylvania, I wanted to do some casual operating. So, I set up in the backyard to make a few contacts.
Today, I decided to give my Gabil GRA-7350TC vertical some air time. It’s been a while since I’ve used it. I set it up using the Gabil GRA-ULT01 MK3 tripod. I had forgotten how well engineered the Gabil stuff is. Anyway, I used four 15-foot speaker wire radials spread out on the ground. For the coax, I used 20 feet of RG-174.
I started out on 40M. Using an antenna analyzer, I got the SWR down as far as I could and let the KX3’s tuner do the rest. Taking a quick dial spin down the band, I didn’t hear much at all. Eventually, I came across WA2NYY activating a park in New York and called him. Despite the horrendous band conditions, he heard my 5-watt signal on the first call. Next, I heard an activator in North Carolina, but I had a rough copy. We still managed to complete the contact.
Next, I moved up to 20M and found the same crappy conditions. Eventually, I found and worked two more POTA activators.
I checked the POTA spotting page and saw that there were a couple of European activators on 15M. I tuned up the antenna and did a quick check. Nothing but dead silence across the band.
It was at that point that I checked the band conditions online and saw that there was a severe geomagnetic storm in progress. It showed poor conditions on all the HF bands. That certainly explained the lousy band conditions.
Not being a glutton for punishment, I shut down for the day. Still, I was thankful for the four contacts I made with five watts of CW into an eight-foot base-loaded whip during a severe geomagnetic storm.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 