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General Category => Amateur Radio => Topic started by: Matt285 on December 11, 2019, 0019 UTC

Title: 30 meters
Post by: Matt285 on December 11, 2019, 0019 UTC
Whats up with 30 meters? 30 used to be my go to band. No contest. Propagation a combination of 20 and 40 with no contest with a 200 watt max. I miss working 10 mhz. This is based on CW activity. Maybe there is a bit more on digital, but even that portion seems pretty dead.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: BoomboxDX on December 12, 2019, 0317 UTC
I remember about 15-20 years ago it had a lot more activity. Now I just hear the odd RTTY sounding mode or some digital activity from time to time.

Generally, although there are apparently "more hams than ever" (at least, according to the two ham forum sites I frequent), most of them must just look at their radios on the way to the TV set. Or so it seems. Propagation definitely isn't helping things much, though.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: Rob. on December 12, 2019, 1426 UTC
A lot of hams don't call CQ anymore. Most wait for spots on the reflector to show something interesting or they jump into an existing conversation. I hear more CQs on AM than on SSB nowadays.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: autovon on December 12, 2019, 1943 UTC
There's always a decent amount of FT8 activity.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: Matt285 on December 12, 2019, 2343 UTC
Yes a lot of hams don't call CW anymore and base propagation on website reports. Also a lot of new Hams don't stick with it or tend to stay on FM 2M or 440 . Too bad
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: Josh on December 13, 2019, 2329 UTC
Indeed, lack of cq seems to be prevalent. I had been missing Russia and places eastward in the jt65 logs, they never heard me. I quickly learned to only call cq and never answer them because if I got an answer I knew they could hear me.

One day was fooling around in jt mode and called on a otherwise silent as in completely dead 20m, and just like that and with decent signal level a guy in Russia came back to me. Call cq.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: chanito on December 18, 2019, 0136 UTC

30m is packed every morning thru noon. FT8 is the preferred mode. At night, there are phone QSO's on ch 4 and 5 routinely. Lots of CW. You must be in a RF doldrum to not catch 30m daily.


From my QTH, yesterday morning I had PSKReporter pings from Indonesia to Siberia simultaneously, running 40w to a 120' wire 6' off the ground.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: Matt285 on December 18, 2019, 1218 UTC
Yeah. Not able to catch it during the day much. I used to work 30 a lot in the evening into Russia and various Ukrainian countries. CW only. Not into digital modes, I know they do well though
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: BoomboxDX on December 24, 2019, 0057 UTC

30m is packed every morning thru noon. FT8 is the preferred mode. At night, there are phone QSO's on ch 4 and 5 routinely. Lots of CW. You must be in a RF doldrum to not catch 30m daily.


From my QTH, yesterday morning I had PSKReporter pings from Indonesia to Siberia simultaneously, running 40w to a 120' wire 6' off the ground.

Phone? I was unaware that 30 meters was open to voice comms by hams. Did the rules change?

As for your comment about "RF doldrum", remember that in northern latitudes prop is usually poorer than in southern latitudes, due to the proximity of the auroral radio zone.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: autovon on December 26, 2019, 0311 UTC
Probably thinking of 60M
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: chanito on December 31, 2019, 1856 UTC
Yeah, my bad. Had 60m on the brain. 30m though, still packed with digital goodness. You can work a lot of Oceania in the mornings.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: Matt285 on March 16, 2020, 0052 UTC
Just figured I'd do an update now that I have my HF rig back. Still not hearing a lot of activity on 30m CW. I'm building a vertical now and had thought about cuting it for 30, but I just don't hear enough activity. Maybe digital (FT4/FT8) is more prevalent. I really miss the band. I love the wattage restrictions, no contest and the fact that most people run simple verticals or dipoles. Makes for a nice level playing field.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: Matt285 on March 16, 2020, 2124 UTC
Hearing a fair amount of DX out of Europe this afternoon on 30. Most stations are pretty low though. The stronger tend to have a quick pile up and I'm too busy to work splits between cooking dinner and other things. Nice to hear though. Maybe I will cut the vertical for 30m after all.
Title: Re: 30 meters
Post by: Matt285 on March 18, 2020, 2123 UTC
30M has been great in the afternoon. Today I've worked Cuba, Slovenia, Denmark, PR, and a couple of others I didn't write down. Can't wait to try out the vertical when I have time to put it together.