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EricExtreme wrote:From Auburn, Massachusetts to 43SS97 aka Syd in Blayney, NSW, Australia On September 29, 2012 running barefoot on my galaxy mobile hooked up to my base antenna Spectrum 1600 5/8 wave lambda aerial running about 50 watts. It was a 10,610 mile contact.
i have talked all over the US but by far the best was my first DX contact ever on a CB. I had a little Midland 6ch plugable Chrystal controlled Cb in my 1972 Datsun 510 in about 1973. I had a rat Shack base load antenna on the trunk and was on Ch2 one day sitting in the driveway of my best friends house waiting for him to make us baloney sandwiches. I had the radio on and heard nothing till this dude started calling for a radio check. I responded, all on my 3w of output. He came back and told me I sounded like I was sitting down the street and asked how he was sounding. I answered he sounded the same and when he asked what cross streets I was at I told him...silence for a few long seconds then he said WHAT? I repeated my cross streets and he asks What city are you in? I told him Albuquerque and he comes back laughing saying he was in Toronto Canada~! I was floored ans we talked for about half an hour till my slow buddy came out with the sammiches and we went cruising around town talking on the radio. Back then, when conditions were in they were really in. I use to talk all over the US on a box stock Cobra 142 on both Am and SSb when I upgraded to one of those when they first came out.
Back in 1976 we talked to a guy in Guantanamo Bay on a Midland 23 channel base pushing all of 4 watts through a Hy-gain Penetrator antenna mounted on the roof of our house in Salina, Kansas. Anytime the skip rolled in from the southeast we were able to catch him.
I think I have a stack of Skip postcards somewhere from folks we talked to.
Well it may not be as far as some of you guys. But back in 1992 I caught a guy out of the U.S Virgin Islands going by the handle of Captain Midnight. I was transmitting from Kmart's parking lot in Eastlake, Ohio on my lunch break. I was running an old GE 40 channel with SSB and a Texas Star 350v with a ball and spring mounted 102 SS whip. Think I was pushing about 200 watts. I use to catch him almost every Saturday around noon to 1pm on my lunch break and some week days too. Always telling me and anyone else he talked to, he was on the beach drinking cold ones right next to his radio. Some guys have all the luck...lol
Since I have been back on radio ( after 20 years off ) in the past year or so I have hit Boston Mass. Some good old boys in Texas, Tucson Arizona, Southern California " Motormouth Maul", South Carolina, and west Virgina, all on my barefoot HR2510 and 102 SS whip, pushing about 20/25 watts from my mobile in N.E Ohio just east of Cleveland.
I should get more after my new rig gets here and set up in my mobile.
Well I made my first contact 3-3-13 on 24 am, Northern Maine to "The Rattle Snake" in St Petersburg Florida, whatever miles that is he was pushing over 9 on my meter, and then yesterday 3-5-13 I made Contact with "The Gator" down in Texas was pushing between 4-5 one the S-Meter, I've just started getting into shooting skip, being a truck driver it always just annoyed me, but now that I'm participating I find it fascinating, how can you talk to someone thousands of miles away but your buddy 3-4 miles away can't hear you at all
My Bare feet:
Magnum S-6 Tuned by Clays Radio Shop Road King 56 (Sold)
Connex 4600 Turbo, Clays Radio Shop Road King 56 (Sold)
Connex 3400 HP, Sparkys CB Shack, Astatic 636L
2 Single Coil Predator 10K 12 inch shafts "I'm Just a Matchbox Car playing in a Tonka Truck World" [ external image ]
I made a contact with a barefoot Uniden Washington and Imax 2000 to California from Kentucky. Another contact with RCI 2980wx and Imax 2000 along with a Palomar 25A to Pakistan from Kentucky. Last conact with barefoot Galaxy DX979 and Firestik antenna to Conneticut in the mobile.
Early 1990's I set in my pickup truck on the parking lot at work during break.
Had a fabulous Ham International Multimode III which was sent to me through customs.
Antenna was a stainless steel 102 inch whip.
The radio had a 1 watt setting which I used.
Now I was not on the regular 40 CB channels but for 30 minutes I worked Europeans continuously.
Yes some sunspot cycles are better than others.
Solar cycle 24 is an anomaly of lower sunspots that only happens about every 40 years. There was a solar cycle like this during Galileo GalileI's life and he studied it.
However, also during Galileo Galilei's time were record sunspot counts.
We can take that to mean booming signals in the near future even though it is not that bad now.
Loaded question and subjective to what is considered far. The farthest you could talk from new York city would have to be japan which I have done many times with little power and very easy to work because of the population and huge amount of radio activity. A little luck from Mother Nature and you could bag japan easily. Now what is the hardest part of the world to hit! Would be an undeveloped country with little radio activity. An example for me would have to be a little island in the pacific many moons ago near the Fiji islands word usually gets around that a station from there would be on in the late afternoon on 7mhz aka 40 meters cw. Back in the 80s this contact is gold because of the difficulty of it. A qsl card from here would prove world dominance in the radio world. This guy would charge his marine battery all day (don’t know how!) he would come out with less than 5 watts on cw and call cq every afternoon other hams knew his operating habit and time and pounce on this guy like hungry buzzards this frenzy would last minutes to sometimes over an hour till the guys battery ran out. He would do this every day. At the same time between 5pm and 7pm local time.
This certain day I did not go to work just to baby sit this frequency all day I knew this guy would sometimes test his equipment early before his regular operating time and bingo at 2pm local time here he goes with those classic V V V V letter on cw this letter is what we use to test the cw keys, don’t know why! The minute he let go of the key I knew it had to be him, I pounce at 15 wpm my fastest at that time I let go of the key and silence not a peep from the states. he came back to my call gave me my report 559 and gave him his 559 and the contact was legit. and this my friend, was the hardest but not the farthest contact I have ever made. Took me 3 years to get that qsl still have it somewhere. Wow sorry sandbagging your question I just have lots of free time on my hands.
I thought I had posted this before, could have been lost during the site crash. Durban, South Africa, channel 11AM, on 4 watts swinging 10, Avanti Moonraker IV pointed do west, had about a 20 minute conversation before asking him where he was, I thought he was in Iowa, this was back in the 70's. I have been trying for Australia but have only gotten to New Zealand.
In 1986 I talked to a guy in Jamaica from Birmingham Alabama in my mobile on AM with a silver streak 150 and I remember it like it was yesterday. We exchanged addresses and he wrote me a letter begging for money. I still have the letter somewhere. That's the only out of country contact I have ever made. Since I've been back in the hobby this time I've been getting California almost every time skip rolls in and since I bought my new radio (galaxy DX99v2 plug for the the radio by the way and sponsors have them) i actually get to talk a whole lot more now than I ever did before. Just the other day I talked to California barefoot which I never did before.
President Lincoln 2 Sirio Turbo 5000 Roof Mount 567 East Tennessee
All in the same day about a month back... Galveston tx to Oregon Washington area, then Galveston tx, to Walla Walla Australia, and also a station in new Zealand. 12W cobra 148gtl and an inverted v dipole. That was my first time running skip.. I was pretty excited that day..
Can't remember if I've already posted this or not....oh well , farthest I've actually talked and had a QSO was New Zealand , running my usual 350-400 watts RMS.
Mike
Redbeard 759 , your non profit Prophet from the 'Bam!!!
Farthest on cb was the UK with fire in the wire. As far as the farthest I have ever talked so far with the least amount of power was Hohenpolding,Germany on 10 meters "28.495" USB with 10 watts through a horizontal dipole, According to my QRZ log he was 3,841 miles away or 6,183 kilometers if you use the metric system.
Browning Golden Eagle Mark IVA - Mark III & Mark II "LISTEN FOR THE PING"
Kenwood TS-590S - Yaesu FT897D - Kenwood TS-870 - Icom IC-7300
Yaesu FT-101E - Tram D201A - President Lincoln - CP2000
Gizmotchy G-31 Beam Super Penetrator 500 5/8 Wave
Comet GP9 2 meter/440 "North East Corner Of Massachusetts 613" CBRT 18204
I was listening to a couple of gentlemen talking on lsb in the upper channels today and they sounded like they were right in my room and after several minutes listening to them talk I fired a hello at them saying where are you guys and they came right back to me and said they both were in Maine and were neighbors as well as friends so we talked for several minutes until they both faded out and I looked up to see my foot warmer wasn't even on, over 2100 miles barefoot, not bad for a 959 on a ground plane at roof level.
I suppose the farther-est I have talked was when I lived in Santa Ana Calif I talked to a guy in Cape Town, South Africa on lower 16sb back in the 70's, looking at the world it's on the other side of it from me, I'll never forget that.
Yesterday I made contacts to Australia and New Zealand yesterday right at sunset..... I am running a Cobra 2000, Messenger 4v amp and Jogunn 4+4 beam. That's a first for me being in western Kansas. Beyound that I have made lots of US and Canadian contacts both with power and barefoot. All on 38 Lsb
812 in Kansas
[hr][/hr] December 09 2013
Here is the last few days contacts
Dec 6 2013
Tony - 785 the polar bear - ketchican alaska 38 lsb 14:12 hrs - 38 lsb
I drive a volvo 18 wheeler with a cobra 29ltd(echo/reverb board)with an rfx 75 puttin out 120 watts with predator 10 k on a 7 in shaft(i think) single coil...Talked to some dude in fla from truro novascotia canada..
Got a new stryker im tryin to dial in now..Roughly same power..
in my mobile on AM with a silver streak 150 and I remember it like it was yesterday. We exchanged addresses and he wrote me a letter begging for money. I still have the letter somewhere. That's the only out of country contact I have ever made. Since I've been back in the hobby this time I've been getting California almost every time skip rolls in and since I bought my new radio (galaxy DX99v2 plug for the the radio by the way and sponsors have them) i actually get to talk a whole lot more now than I ever did before. Just the other day I talked to California barefoot which I never did before.
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