I finally got my 40-meter dipole hung up a couple of weeks ago and have been working some 40-meters lately. The dipole is a simple center-fed wire antenna, and I have the center-point hung about 27′ in the air. In an inverted-V fashion, both legs are at 8.5′ atop my fence. I think I might try to get the ends a bit higher soon. I could even go about 5-6′ higher on the center-point if I need to, but I’d have to take the mast down and re-position the pulley. Not a huge deal, really, but also not something I was wanting to do in the winter months.
By accident, I found a couple of HF nets that I joined. The first was the NATA Net on 7.185MHz, where they allow people to contact other hams in states they’ve not worked for the WAS (Worked All States) achievement. This was a fun net, and the first night I joined, I made a few contacts and have already receive 2 QSL cards.
Nets I also worked were the Old Miss Net and the Moonlighters Net. All of these on 40-meters, but some of them also run on other bands.
I’m looking forward to joining into more nets and getting my tuner setup, so that I can work more bands. Lately the 10 and 20 meter bands have both been up during the day, so I’ll want to try some activity there soon also.