Saturday, September 15, 2012

PSK31 to Amman, Jordan

Conditions have been good recently on 15m. On that band I have a choice of two antennas - the multiband dipole or the magnetic loop. The multiband dipole doesn't actually have elements for 15m so on that band I think the 40m element must do the work. The K3 ATU is needed to produce a good match.

There is quite a big difference in performance between the two antennas on 15m. The magnetic loop, surprisingly, has a higher noise level but it also produces stronger signals on some stations. On other stations the dipole seems best. It's a pity I don't have a sub-receiver in the K3. It would be interesting to try diversity reception one day.
Amman, Jordan
Whenever a band is open you can usually find some PSK31 activity even if you can't hear any phone. That was the case yesterday on 15 metres when I worked Nart, JY5IB from Amman, Jordan. That's an all-time new country for me so I was very pleased to get him into the log. On this occasion it was the magnetic loop that did the job.

2 comments:

Paul Stam PAØK said...

I still like PSK31 and use it often, and JY is a nice catch, congrats. 73 Paul

VE9KK said...

Good afternoon Julian, great catch down into Jordan. As for Diversity it's great (using it right now). My two antennas are dipoles facing different directions. Not the best setup but for an attic gig it does the trick. I find it does make a difference and allows you to not have as much fading.