I had a good afternoon today with DX contacts on 20, 15 and 10 meters, all using the Buddipole as a horizontal dipole. I’m finding the Buddipole works best on 10 meters and I’m getting my best contacts on there when it’s open. I rarely get responses to CQ calls on 20 meters from the car/mobile or when portable, particularly from DX stations and was pleasantly surprised to get two on 10 meters, from Germany and the Czech Republic. The conditions were not particularly good at the time so that was even better!
I’m also enjoying the quietness of the Buddipole with no QRM whatsoever on the bands!
I’ve had mixed results on 20 meters with the Buddipole. The configurations report that came with it suggested that using a vertical configuration on this band maybe best due to issues with the antenna’s height versus the wavelength, so I’m going to set up the vertical as per the Buddipole video and see how I get on. I’ve tried it both as a horizontal dipole and with an L shape on 20 meters. The L shape does not seem to work very well on the band from this location. I’ve called several DX stations who clearly could not hear me, even though I was receiving them loud and clear.
Filed under: Amateur Radio
