Radio and computer on a desk

I’ve been working quite a bit of FT8 on HF in the past few weeks. Without too much effort, I’ve already collected about 170 QSOs (contacts) with 110 QSLs (confirmed by the other side). Among those QSLs, I’ve worked 35 states and 4 countries beyond the US, which is pretty incredible to me! My humble HF station is far from ideal, but it’s doing the job, at least operating FT8.

I’m still operating the IC-718 and the EMCOMM II antenna with the IT-100 tuner, SignaLink and CI-V interfaces. I’ve added an MFJ-822 power/SWR meter, which is actually giving me much different power numbers than the radio and I’m glad to have it. I’ve learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work in this particular arrangement.

For instance, in the first week or so of operating, I had frequent CI-V resets when raising my transmit power above 20W. Turns out, the EMCOMM II (as with many end-fed wire antennas) uses the feedline’s coax as a counterpoise if there’s nothing else, which introduces RF into one’s shack and wreaks havoc on computer data wires. Adding an independent counterpoise wire helped a lot: on 20m and above I can use all 100W the radio generates, although I still have the same resetting problem on 40m and below if I use too much power. I suspect having the antenna 3 feet away from the radio (through the exterior wall) isn’t helping!

All things considered, I’m impressed with the current setup. With a starter radio and “temporary” antenna, I’m approaching a Worked All States award. Still, there’s plenty to improve, like establishing a station ground and devising some other antenna situation. I’m currently getting a pretty constant S7 of noise, and I have to wonder if that’s what has foiled my couple of attempts at ARDOP Winlink. I’m sure I’ll figure that out soon enough.