Ham Club to the Rescue

My husband, Bill KE5VKB, and I (Cindy Downes K5CED) are fairly new hams and have been wanting to get on HF and do some DXing, but our vertical antenna in the attic just wasn't doing the job. We could hear everyone else, but no one could hear us. Bill is legally blind, so our ham club friends came to the rescue.


Thanks to Guy WB5MXO, Cathy WB5MXP, Dan W5BM, and John KN5UPS, as well as Ray KE5WGA, Wayne KW5M and Joe N5TEX, we're now able to get on HF. Dan, John, Ray, Joe and Wayne did some troubleshooting on our Yaesu 857 radio and our old vertical antenna.


Guy and Cathy installed the G5RV antenna.

We hooked one end of the wire to a tree behind my house; the other end around a roof vent. The ladder line hangs above our porch and hooks to coax which goes through the window into our shack. You can see part of the ladder line of the antenna in this photo.

    

After we got it set up, Guy contacted NC and Canada. Then I got on and made contacts to PA, AZ, and OH. I also heard Hawaii, but wasn't able to get through the pileup. All the stations we talked to said our signal was S9+. It was amazing!

This was truly a team effort and one well appreciated. This is a ham radio club at its best.