On the 26th of December, K1PT visited my new future QTH and helped me put up a piece of wire to use as an antenna. The wire was about 150 feet long, and was directly fed with RG-58. A 33ft counterpoise was attached to the braid of the coax. The antenna was shortened until it was reasonant on 40 meters. SWR on 80 and 160 was infinite. On average, it was about 25ft high, 40ft at the highest where it passed through the branches of a pine tree. Paul loaned me his Ten-Tec Omni VI and I powered it with the car battery.

I was very impressed at how well the QTH "hears". The noise level on 80 and 160M was S3 on the meter. Conditions seemed very good - although I since discovered they were only average that night - a good sign that this location is a good one. I made some recordings by holding my MP3 player over the speaker of the radio. It was far from ideal, but the recordings sound fine. Here are the WAV files:

Recorded in the early evening, local time:

RA6AX on 160M- he makes his own propagation, so it's no real surprise. You hear him CQing, apparently unable to hear K4WY and VE3OSZ calling.

EU1AB on 160 - finishing a QSO, then W9IU and KA1R call, then EU1AB calls CQ, unable to hear them.

UA3ASZ on 160 - I recorded the end of a CQ.

VQ9LA on 80 - calling CQ

Recorded the next morning, local time:

JO7HAM on 80 - in QSO with RV4WCB

JO7HAM on 80 - calling CQ

JA8ISU on 160 - in QSO with AA4H. He's weak, but in there!