Short update today. Last night we had a bit of time, so we decided to finish up the DX-CC antenna installation. It had been mostly installed and operational, but one leg was just laying in the tree in the front yard. The center section is on a 10 foot mast installed in a 3 foot tripod on our roof, and the other leg is secured with rope to a clothesline in the backyard. But the second leg hadn't been finished.

So, with a bit of lopper and chainsaw work, we cleared out a bit of the tree to make room for the antenna to be stretched out, and then we secured it to a branch. The installation is nearly symmetrical angles, inverted "V" configuration. It's not "perfect" but the thing is with dipoles is it doesn't have to be. It should work fine.

And indeed it does. We fired it up, and ran through 20, 17, 40, and 80 meters. Sure, the bands were in the toilet, but we heard several stations all over the US and in Canada. We couldn't make any contacts, as most of the stations were deep in long QSO's, and the one that wasn't, couldn't hear us it seems. But, a dipole at 25 or 30 feet been driven by a measly 100 watts is practically "QRP" compared to what most people run these days, so... ;) Challenge is good!

Hopefully SPK will get her first HF contact in the next couple of days. Her voice should make it easier.

In other radio news - we have a plan that will maybe, hopefully, help to find new people interested in radio in our area. We took the idea from the knitting community's "Knitting in Public Day" concept - basically, we're going to "Operate in Public." We'll setup at a busy park, with our other antenna tripod and a portable setup, and hopefully people will be like "wow, what are you doing?" and we'll explain a bit about our hobby and maybe get some people interested. Or, it'll just be fun. Either way - amateur radio is fun! (And saves lives!)