It’s been another hot and humid summer, so I don’t have much motivation to go out and operate other than the QRP field activities. I went down to the neighborhood park for the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt in August, but there were too many thunderstorms in the area to operate. Between the thunder and static crashes, I couldn’t hear much. Another event where I got bonus points (social media post), but no QSO points 🙁
At home I’ve been watching FT8 on higher bands. My antenna gets into South America well on 15 and 10m, both of which have been opening lately. 17m lets me work Europeans. 12m is another that gets into Europe, but hasn’t been that busy lately.
On 20m there’s still quite a bit of QSB, but the band is supporting ragchew modes, and I’ve worked a few stations on PSK31. I prefer Olivia 8/250 because it’s better with fading. Just use RSID to help people identify your mode. I had a 20 minute QSO with a station in northern California last week before the band fell apart.