Longest Skip on Lowest Power?

#281960

I recently shot skip from La, to Ga with a old worn looking 1 pill Texas Star Modulator. I was just testing it out on my cheapo radio shack power meter it shows about 75 watts after a low pass filter. I was impressed with getting out that far. I have heard crazy stories of people skipping long distances with "barefoot" rigs. I wonder what are some of the real world low power skip experiences other members have had.

#281964

from central Fla. i regularly get contacts out of west virginia and kentuky barefoot (6-700 miloe range)and a couple times up around wisconsin and the great lakes region ( 1200 mile range) this was while mobile and barefoot (((all single final rigs))). I dont think your power is really the issue with skip more like the power of the other 50 people trying to get out at the same time. I've had a lot more luck with barefoot skip on the free bands ( down one band mainly) because there not as crowded, and SSB.

#281970

I worked a couple of stations in Georgia and Florida a few weeks ago using a workman B1OO compact antenna in the attic on a stock HR2510. I was pretty impressed considering I am located in Canada...

#281976

str8stroke wrote:I recently shot skip from La, to Ga with a old worn looking 1 pill Texas Star Modulator. I was just testing it out on my cheapo radio shack power meter it shows about 75 watts after a low pass filter. I was impressed with getting out that far. I have heard crazy stories of people skipping long distances with "barefoot" rigs. I wonder what are some of the real world low power skip experiences other members have had.

When I got my very first radio it was because I was driving solo from Orange County CA to Scottsdale AZ. It was in the era before cell phones were the thing, I think maybe 1991. Anyway, I got some weensie little Colt radio that was so non-descript it was pathetic and a little mag mount antenna.

I got hooked on the radio on that trip and didn't remove it from my vehicle when I got home. I knew nothing about skip and was really mostly sandbagging when the local frequency was busy and then braving the elements when it was pretty mellow.

A few months into it I was talking to some guy with a bit of an accent. With a little time in a back and forth Q&A session I learned he was in the Phillipines!

Well, you all know what happened then. Better radio, better antenna. Over and over... I had been bitten by the bug! I know that that one little skip session was an anomaly and can only say that besides contacts in the lower 48 the only distance I spoke to further was somewhere in Alaska.

#281980

Ok You Asked!! Low Power??? what do you consider LOW power? to me thats less than 20 watts and my old SS3900 on 11meter AM to the coast of Africa on a CB channel hows that! and off a old Shakespeare Army BigStick!! and that is True!
and how bout this off my Galaxy 44 and No AMPs all over the eastern Seaboard of US on less than 1 watt! so when I did Put Fire in Da Wire It was KNOWN! Now do you know what EME is?? Hammies call it MoonBounce! and THEY Use over 2000+ watts to do it!! I was able to do it off of my Royce and a tiny 2 pill crankin at best 170 watts and Bingo!! and I did have a advantage called 6000 ft in Elevation , but all from a tiny 2 wheeled RV.

If Ya know me!!! you knew where the itty bitty RV was, then i Moved!! I Like Challenges and SSB got boring turnin that clairifier CONSTANTLY, so in the 80's after a decade of Radioin I went back to AM, and to me that is a Challenge!!
and contacts!! Try Radio Free Europe!! or Argentina! or Austraillia!! Alaska, Hawaii, or Japan all from Low Watt AM 11 meter CB bandwidth!! but I did have to give it a Tad of Help with Japan after initial Contact!! with my 4 pill!! then I said the only sentence in Japanise I Know= Ai Wakani Mashka!!! and to get em all comin back at ya!!!! What Funn from the Continenal Divide of the Rockies!!!

When I Finally had enuff comments flung at me After 2 DECADES I told em i'd get me a kw so I did!!! and IT Only Made MORE Trouble 1.4 kw of it!!So I SOLD my Ole D&A Mavrick 250 long Ago!!! and some day maybeee I'll Get a BIG AMP, but for now I'll keep doin what has worked for 40 Years!!!! Yessssirreee Prime Minista!! There Aint No Excuses On Da BOWL!! IF IT WORKS!! Dont Fixxx It!! The Rain Said It!!!

#281981

I have only been at this for a couple weeks. My second contact confirmation when trying skip for the first day was between Ontario Canada and here in my drive way in Kentucky with a 4' SOTT antenna. The radio is a tuned cobra 148GTL side mic from Taiwan.

#281998

today talked to 987 dallas texas on my rci 2950 barefooted with a wilson 1000 mag mount on the trunk of my cavilar.

#282007

I talk skip several times a week from my truck and my Galaxy 959 is only set up to dk at 5 watts and modulate to 23 (simple peak and tune). I don't feel the need for an amp with all the extra cables and strain on the electrical system, so have never used one. I will be in the market for a new Galaxy 95T2 soon and definitely won't need an amp with that. I don't have a problem with anyone using an amp, but I hear some really bad ones out there with pinched audio and backwards swing. I always figured that if a ham can talk around the world using only 25 watts on 10 meters, I should be able to do the same on 11 meters provided the skip is in my favor. We should be seeing those kind of conditions soon enough with the new solar cycle starting up.

#282010

With a barefoot radio - Galaxies or 2950, I've talked skip to Hawaii, Alaska, New Zealand, Australia, all over South America, Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, once each to Africa, Germany, and England, not to mention Canada and the lower 48 States of the US. In fact, I talked to the Virgin Islands a few days ago for a brief period of time. All these contacts were on radios keying around 4 - 6 watts and driving 18 - 18 watts. most were on an a99 antenna. Many are from my mobile.

#282012

From Wichita Falls Texas sitting on midwestern blvd.
25 bird watts
to sidney austrialia
sitting in the suburban

#282034

10M sideband GA to Ontario, GA to Dominican Republic, GA to CA , CT to GA, on a HR2510 at about 18 watts PEP. GA to CA, GA to PA, GA to TX
With a permanent antenna at the house I'm looking forward to worldwide DX soon. It should be easy with a 30 foot tower and a small beam when the Sunspots return or if there is a big sporadic E opening.
I think getting the right conditions on a quiet frequency is the key. It is all about signal to noise ratio when the band is open. My local noise level is way too high from lots of RFi from computers and other appliances. I do best from my truck about a hundred yards down the road from the house.

#282061

I've done the low power QRP stuff like anyone else, nothing exceptional comes to mind, but recently in CQ magazine I read about an EME (earth-moon-earth) contact made with just a few milliwatts, less than a tenth of a watt I believe. That's not really skip and their antenna system was very serious, but still amazing. On cb, I've heard old stories of people shooting skip on 100 milliwatt walkie talkies and more recently hear stories of guys in Europe using FRS (family radio service) stuff and talking good distances.

On the ham bands, I used to regularly work my grandfather, who was 200 miles away, on cw (morse code) with just a few watts, and he could hear me fine.

The antenna is the real contact maker when the conditions are right. Once, I had a guy in Ohio, with me in tx, and he was running 100 watts. He told me he was going to low power and listen for him. He came back with one watt and I could still hear him, way down near the noise floor, but proof that conditions and antenna mean alot. Now much of this is not applicable on cb, where it is a wattage slugfest, but on a clear frequency with considerate operators a lot is possible.

-drdx

#282208

summer of 92 ,i got an old tram diamond 60 , i had been limited on cb except when mobile so i set up the tram in my house on a home-made 1/2 wave horz.dipole. at 3 am i could talk to australia from arizona, 36Lssb, 12w pep.(barefoot)

#282915

I've talked from East Coast NC to Indiana, Ark, Canada, NY, GA FL. Talking on a Cobra 29 with peak and tune

420Snowman · #282941

Talked to Deerslayer in Florida, and AudioBoy on a Cobra 36ST walkie talkie with a Lil Wil antenna!!!

#283215

windwalker wrote: that was back in the day around 71 72 again that was back in the day people were nicer and would give you break right

Not from what I remember

#283468

I haven't made it to australia or anything but I was surprised when I talked to whiskey 389 in ontario canada barefoot on my 2517 doing 40 watts but my very first contact was to seattle washington and that's when I got hooked that's a really good distance from tennessee atleast it is to me since with everything on I'm fightin against silver bullet in nashville and ridge runner one of my friends in lebanon

#284242

When the 'conditions' are right and Mother Nature is having a Good day...and Mr. Murphy is giving us a break....Any skip is possible !!

djrebel236 · #284252

my personal records, plan to break them sometime in the near future,

2 watt hand-held = Nova Scotia, Canada from Northwestern, Pa

my old home base = Portugal from Northwestern, Pa

my present home base = Beijing, China from Northwestern, Pa

#284423

I was reading the posts and thinking about the fun CB days back in the 70's & early 80's. Having fun just keying down on the base and talking over seas or to the East coast on a 16w swing on ssb. I was so excited as a young man of 10yr to be able to do such a feat.

The only low power contact I can remember was in my truck at Ft Bragg NC to Southern Cal. My buddy Jim or (aka Mr DX) from home called the barracks and told me NC was coming in strong. Cobra 148GTL with an Amazer in the bed of the truck. I used both power settings and we kept contact for about 45 min or so on 37 lower.

I remember this because this was one of the last few times I talked to Jim long distance before he died.

Thanks for posting this!
Great memories

#284577

After a trip on a school bus enabled for a Christian ministry, “youth in the Mission” to visited the depths of the mountains and the bus failure about 40 miles from the next town, we had about 40 young people in the vehicle and I only had a very old 23 channels radio using with a magnetic decalibrate antenna by radio shack only to talk to other missionaries in their small car Honda civic; anyway the case is that nobody could hear us in the region i´m sure of that, but I still call to any station on Channel 9 after a while I get answer from a Puerto Rico station and he wonder what I need and he make contact in the same channel to a Mexican Emergency station to the near town, in the trip was casual a pair of youth from Puerto Rico and other countries, soo I made a rare contact with a cheap magnet antenna in to school bus with a old 23 channel radio and 3 or 4 wtts……..
This happened in northeastern Mexico and the contact was to Puerto Rico in the Caribbean

73´s
Jose Luis
WR113 “Grizzly Bear”

#284587

Cool story 10-TM-03!

#284789

Last night (Saturday 7/10/2010) I was able to talk for more than 30 minutes on 27.3450 AM (Channel 34) with "One Eyed Jack" on his mobil in Marshall, Texas from my base in northeast Indiana. Best conditions that I have experianced at this kind of distance (800 miles the way the crow flys).

#284796

I'm in western Colorado, at about 6500 ft. Lately I've been able to work southern cal, the pacific northwest and sometimes make contact with some stations in texas. All barefoot, in the mobile with a Little Will antenna. All on sideband.

#285188

Back in the late 70's and early 80's solar cycle, I worked all of Europe, Russia, Africa, Hawaii, Alaska, New Zealand, Australia, South America and Greenland on 12 Watts, a PDL2 and a Tram D201A lower part of 11 meters. (That was before I heard of something called Ham Radio.) I hope this sunspot cycle reaches the peak like it did back then. Today, the bands suck. I am lucky to get Hawaii, Australia and Europe on a 15 minute band opening on 10 meters but South America right now is walking the dog almost every day if you can get them to speak English and getting them to do that is like pulling teeth. Some really do understand English but you have to put some fire in the wire to get their attention and be persistent.

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