Just talked to Australia

[BuckySWT]

We are at Port A. I’m an amateur radio operator and we have a 2nd and 3rd floor balcony and a gulf view.

I couldn’t resist throwing up an antenna tonight to see what I could hear.

Bands are opening up a little and with lack of noise from not being in New Braunfels, I could hear stuff everywhere!!

Then I heard a guy from Australia call CQ (looking for contacts), so I replied and about fell over when he heard me!!

Almost 8800 miles between us and for a while, he sounded like he was sitting next to me. Propagation deteriorated some but we had about a 5 minute convo.

Im still floored that my little 6 watt signal carried that far!!!

[Beerkat]

That’s really cool.

[BlessedVeteran0305]

Awesome

[Pedernal]

Wow that is awesome!! Curious as to your set up… Is that a dipole antenna?? What brand/model radio are you using??

[falmike]

I too am curious about your setup.

73’s

K5CWO

[flywise]

That’s cool as hell

[Smithwr]

Dork. LOL J/k thats awesome!

[Mexico]

That is cool!

[AntlerCollector]

My phone can do that too.

[Dusty Britches]

That's awesome Bucky. Didn't you buy some of your radio stuff from me? I'm glad you are able to reach that far. My dad was always super excited to raise people from across the oceans. It was a lot of fun for him.

[Das71198]

That’s so cool.

[Rubi513]

That's cool.
My Dad had a base station when I was younger that had a linear amplifier. This was in the 70s and 80s. As a kid I could get on it and say "hey Dad". Didn't matter what part of Texas he was in he would respond back.
Dad used to talk to folks all over the world back in those days.

[TX CHICKEN]

My grandfather was a ham radio operator and I was always amazed at the people he could reach on that thing. He had many lifelong friends he never met in person from that hobby.

[eradicator]

Is he as disgusted with his govt as we are with ours?

[KDinTX]

Back in the days of CB's in pickups, we used to have Galaxy radios with side bands and linears, could talk all over with them. Was pretty cool to be able to talk all over the state and other states while driving around.