Today I was reorganising my shack, finishing the RF Earthing and installing an MFJ-1708B SDR antenna switch. It took a lot longer than I thought it would and by the time I'd finished I was ready for a mid-afternoon beer :-)
Once I'd got everything connected up, I sat down and switched the Elecraft KX3 on and ran the RSP1A to give me a panadapter. 40M was dead so I flicked to 20M and BOOM, there were loads on - mainly Americans and Canadians.
I tuned one guy in from Ontario - VE3EJ, John Sluymer, and listened for a while. He had very clear audio and a nice S7 on the meter. With 10W I thought I wouldn't stand a chance of him hearing me, but to my surprise he shouted back immediately! He gave me a 5/9 report and asked me how much power I was using. When I told him 10W he was surprised and asked me to confirm, lol.
Well he was no more surprised than me! With that success (and a grin on my face), I tuned around and scooped up a few more contacts in Canada and USA. I had been thinking of tweaking my half-size G5RV but this success made me decide to leave it well alone!
A great first day DXing from the shack. Can't wait to get up in the hills and try it :-)
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