<div dir="auto"><div>Christopher,</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">It is a lovely place. My family has a long history vacationing in Eastham. The Marconi area is special to me because we used to go there when it was just a dirt road and the debris from the station was still there. Long time ago.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">As to my antenna. While the G90 has the reputation of having a great tuner, my preference is for resonant antennas. I use a Wolf River Coils extensible whip. The long one that can be tuned in length down to the 20 m band. I have the Wolf River Coils Sporty Forty Coil that will allow that whip to be used on 40 m. I mostly just use the whip. The whip is mounted on the WRC tripod, the one with 24 inch legs. I have 100 ft of silicone coated wire cut into 6 equal lengths. Two wires attached per alligator clip and clipped to the tripod legs for ground radials.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">It stores compactly, and is easy to set up. Also it requires no staking or ground spikes that might annoy rangers. I tune the length using a VNA. I used to use a nanoVNA, but that is kind of fiddly, so I bought one of the RigExpert Stick VNAs to make the measurements.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Over moist ground I can get impressively low SWR numbers. In dry sandy Wellfleet I was at 1.3; good enough.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">It was not very expensive and the mix and match ability of the products in the Wolf River line means I can mess with other options in the future.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Chris </div><div dir="auto">W2BPL</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Sent from my phone.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 22, 2025, 1:36\u202fPM Christopher Wood <<a href="mailto:christopher.wood@firelinkllc.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">christopher.wood@firelinkllc.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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Chris,</div>
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Congratulations on your work down on the Cape. I have a house in Wellfleet and know from where you were transmitting. Unfortunately, I'm getting down there very rarely recently due to work.</div>
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Yes, that's my experience that it's very quiet down there and generally easy to make contacts. Sadly, I just don't seem to have an ear for CW or any skill for transmitting. However, I've worked both phone and FT8 with much success. I really do love that area
having been going there for nearly 50 years.</div>
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I'd be curious to know more about your antenna.</div>
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My usual setup is IC705 with an antenna tuner and Super Antenna with a long aerial on 20 m. With an external battery, a small LiFePO4, it puts out 10W. I've made lots of contacts across the pond and the Americas.<br>
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<p><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Best wishes,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Christopher</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">KC1GHR</span> </p>
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<div id="m_1423583383840714503m_4480830474617340773divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> bars <<a href="mailto:bars-bounces@w1hh.org" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">bars-bounces@w1hh.org</a>> on behalf of Christopher Lennon via bars <<a href="mailto:bars@w1hh.org" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">bars@w1hh.org</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, July 22, 2025 1:23 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> BARS <<a href="mailto:bars@w1hh.org" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">bars@w1hh.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [bars] Is Cape Cod the HF Heaven?</font>
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<div>Just back from a weekend at the Cape. I did a PoTA activation at the National Seashore Marconi area. If you know it, I was set up by the park headquarters on the road up to the Marconi site. There is a nice flat grassy area with trees so I could set
up my equipment in the shade and the quarter wave whip for 20m out in the field.</div>
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<div dir="auto">I was operating CW at 20W with my (nothing to write home about sensitivity wise) Xiegu G90. My usual equipment set up. About 4:00 in the afternoon. Band conditions good. </div>
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<img style="max-width:100%;height:auto" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=eba1035739&attid=0.4&th=1983358e73d8fc16&view=fimg&fur=ip&rm=1983358e73d8fc16&sz=w1600-h1000&attbid=ANGjdJ8fKgcoIIWWkhoKiGKFXm7sf8gK948sE6KlupinpFm9za9SaZHACz9COyRKDB-LNioWazugYXu03hQYdh0QzSPIzBj79Y68hBl6mj4M-1frCgBp-Gu-rer0CZg&disp=emb&realattid&zw"><br>
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<div dir="auto">I usually do fine with this set up. At home noise is S2-S3. In the field S1 is typical. On that afternoon the noise was almost dead silent. No indication on the S meter when not sending or receiving a signal. Dead Silent.</div>
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<div dir="auto">I spotted myself and boom Italy. Boom Great Britain. Boom France. I gave out a lot of 5 readability reports at low 2, 3 signal strength levels. Somewhere in there Puerto Rico. Then a location code I didn't understand, A2X. I had the call
sign so I would look it up later.</div>
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<div dir="auto">A2X: Botswana!! Amazing.<br>
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<div dir="auto">Contact map:</div>
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<img style="max-width:100%;height:auto" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=eba1035739&attid=0.3&th=1983358e73d8fc16&view=fimg&fur=ip&rm=1983358e73d8fc16&sz=w1600-h1000&attbid=ANGjdJ_Xj2bUwFzr7kd9m8xSjBqO2Mk6YVwV9Uqc0QQ7GV_AUGKypT2N1jUT3F0WeWcg0PuEfBCfevL-MIJwor10WQIHXqQGIARapuvEo9gA0UJ5Bo6k8eyHxEqjp5U&disp=emb&realattid&zw"><br>
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<div dir="auto">Is this the usual for Cape Cod?</div>
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<div dir="auto">I wondered if it being a Cape the local noise would be very quiet. I mean they put that first Marconi station there for a reason.</div>
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<div dir="auto">Was I just lucky and having a good afternoon or is Wellfleet the HF capital of the world?</div>
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<div dir="auto">Chris </div>
<div dir="auto">W2BPL</div>
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<div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Sent from my phone.</div>
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