VHF Low Band - 2009/02/28

[kkn50]

VHF Low Band - 2009/02/28
South Texas - EL09

Very strong opening from 0030-0330z.

37.100 - PD
37.160 - PD
39.400/162.2 - CA HP
39.600 - PD
39.680/118.8 - CA HP
39.720/162.2 - CA HP
39.800/162.2 - CA HP
39.880/118.8 - CA HP
39.900 - EMS to "1 mile south of 92, county rd 24, veh vs. cow"
39.960 - WQDW749, Frontier Co, NE w/ pager tests
39.980 - WNRX734, Custer Co, NE w/ pager tests
42.060/203.5 - MO HP
42.120/118.8 - CA HP
42.140/186.2 - MO HP
42.380/173.8 - MO HP
42.400/173.9 - MO HP
42.420/192.8 - CA HP
42.440/162.2 - CA HP
42.460/192.8 - CA HP
42.520 - PD
42.560/118.8 - CA HP
42.580/186.2 - MO HP
42.640/186.2 - MO HP
42.780/173.8 - MP HP
42.820/186.2 - MO HP
42.860 - PD
42.880/192.8 - CA HP
44.700/77.0 - OK HP
46.040 - "clear"
48.420 - "copy"
50.068 - N6NB Beacon, Tehachapi CA - NM7D Beacon Information
50.078 - NM7D Beacon, Saint George UT - The N6NB VHF beacons

 

[kkn50]

31.200 - Spanish at 2045z
33.220 - Spanish taxis at 2123z

Ten meters is open to South America from the eastern and southern US.

 

[NeFire242]

Out of curiosity what scanner and antenna are you using, run of coax? Some good openings lately.

 

[kkn50]

Primary scanner is a Uniden BCD 396T running ARC auto-logging, auto-recording software on a laptop.

Antennas are a Ten meter dipole at 20ft with RG-8U coax and a Six meter square loop at 20ft.

Kenwood TS-680S for six and ten meters.

 

[NeFire242]

Cool, sounds like a great setup, thanks for sharing.

 

[kkn50]

Cool, sounds like a great setup, thanks for sharing.

Is certainly simple enough.

I have been using dipoles for low band for 30+ years, I know they have no gain but they have always worked well for me.

Of course, I would prefer a 25-60 mhz log-periodic (Log-periodic antenna - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), but that presents its own set of problems - space (HF Log Periodic Antennas) and finance (eHam.net Reviews - Antennas: HF Directional (Yagi, quad, log periodic, etc)).