Dummy load, how far will i reach?

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arctic

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Perhaps a silly question, but transmitting at around 10w in to a 50w dummy load with a small stub of 10".
At HF, how far does the signals travel? Will i disturb any other hams or do i reach just around the corner?
 

k9rzz

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Perhaps a silly question, but transmitting at around 10w in to a 50w dummy load with a small stub of 10".
At HF, how far does the signals travel? Will i disturb any other hams or do i reach just around the corner?

Depends.

WHich dummy load? How good are your coax jumpers? How well shielded is your transmitter? Are your other antennas grounded so they don't re-radiate the signal? =:^]

I worked a friend of mine 5 miles away running 5 watts on 80 meters with a soda can loaded on a 6" clip lead.

A different friend in California worked Japan on 40 meters with a 1/4 watt Tuna Tin II transmitter into a 20 meter dipole inside his apartment. (and made QST)

Call CQ and see who answers!
 

n9mxq

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I had my 706 on my can dummy load (oil filled paint can) and was doing some testing on 20 meters adjusting my audio for PSK...

Totally blew my mind when a guy in southern Illinois called me back...
 

zz0468

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Perhaps a silly question, but transmitting at around 10w in to a 50w dummy load with a small stub of 10".
At HF, how far does the signals travel? Will i disturb any other hams or do i reach just around the corner?

It's impossible to predict how far you'll be heard, there are too many variables. But consider that people have worked the world on small fractions of a watt when conditions were right.

I've worked several hundred miles with a Heathkit Cantenna. :lol: That was with a 500 watt transmitter, and RG-58 between the transmitter and the load. Lot's of leakage, but it sure opened my eyes.

On another occasion, I was testing a 2 meter transmitter into a dummy load, and was full quieting into a repeater about 10 miles away.

I was a kid at the time of both occurrences, but it sure opened my eyes. I now use high quality loads, and short double shielded cables.
 
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k6cpo

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My first ever HF QSO was made on 10 meters with a mag-mount CB antenna stuck on the top of a metal storage shed. The responding station was in Florida...
 
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