Friday 4 December 2015

First attempts with WSJT-X, 14MHz and 28MHz

I don't venture onto HF very often but recently I've been reading about WSJT-X and as I've played with WSJT JT65 on VHF it seemed it might be fun to have a go.
My HF setup is a homebrew SDR transceiver which runs just 16watts or so and a 14MHz 1/4 wave ground plane.  With a very long run of coax to the ground plane I doubt if more than half of the 16 Watts reach the feed point. So QRP (more than 5 Watts, so some would say not QRP) and a compromised antenna from what I'd read will fit WSJT-X well.
No trouble setting things up, usual fiddling with the CAT settings though. Found that I needed to set Power-SDR to ID as a TS2000 for some reason.
My first outing was on twenty, managed a few Europeans without much trouble but it was disappointing to discover most couldn't be bothered with the recommended procedure and after exchanging calls were soon sending 73. Still doesn't matter.

The screen, WSJT-X left PowerSDR right


Working further a field was a little harder but a couple of North American contacts were soon logged. One even going through all the transmit periods and sending short station details: 5W DP 73.
Despite the success I found that many stations that were good signal strength either didn't want to work me or couldn't hear me. So I was left wondering sometimes just what power these station were using.

The DX station


A trip to Ten Mertes one lunch time produced this contact, the second most distant I've ever made! Didn't know where CA was!

And the card to prove it!

I'd like to try WSJT-X on Two but not sure where to look for activity but perhaps there isn't any.