Mike,
The poor sunspot levels mostly affect the higher bands, so 40m (and 20m)
should be OK (and have been for me).
It might be that the noise levels in your apartment are just too high to
operate successfully from there - when I'm in London I only operate
portable for that reason.
If your park operations are in a town/city park, a vertical antenna
isn't the best choice, you'll pick up *far* less noise if you use a low
height (e.g. 3 or 5metres high) horizontal dipole suspended from the trees.
It'll have a high angle of radiation and so be useless for DX, but great
for 40m NVIS rag chewing and (because of it's high angle of radiation)
will give a huge noise improvement on the vertical.
At least, that's what I have found operating in central London! I almost
gave up trying, but with my current portable set-up, HF operations in
central London are actually quite workable. More info on the antenna I
use in London on my qrz.com page: https://www.qrz.com/db/G4PWO
(The horizontal dipole might even be worth trying in your apartment, if
you can fit it in!)
Phil G4PWO
On 11/08/2017 17:33, Mike Parkes wrote:
Okay I am reaching our to the Elecraft enthusiasts here for some feedback
if anyone cares to chime in.
I am just getting back on the air after years away from the hobby, so I am
not that familiar with band conditions in general. It looks like the
sunspot cycle is heading for the cellar (if it isn't already there).
Recently bought a KX3 and a Buddistick vertical (like, 2 weeks ago). Love
the KX3 it is a great radio... however... so far my efforts to hear much of
anything, much less make a contact with someone, has been frustrating to
say the least. I live in an apartment and am surrounded by power lines for
one thing. The background noise level on 40 is pretty bad varies but is
s7-9 mostly. I took my setup to a nearby park and the bands were
definitely quieter. So the local manmade noise level is an issue (and one
reason I chose the KX3 was the hope that its rcvr and filtering could help
with that.)
Have yet to make a single contact, so I am just wondering if I just
happened to choose a really lousy period of solar conditions for HF? Or is
the base loaded vertical a joke?
I would love to be able to find another ham even close by just to try and
get some sort of an HF QSO even if it is with someone down the block.
...I can tune down to the AM broadcast band and was able to hear some local
AM stations. :)
Mike AB7RU
(On a side note the tuner in the KX3 is great!. That thing was able to get
a match for 80 meters on the Buddistick which was showing something like
25:1 swr. The KX3 tuner clicked and rattled for a while and found a match
to <2:1. Not sure how much actual RF is going out, probably not much... but
I was amazed it could tune to that high an SWR.)
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