Hello Everyone,
I finally got my rig and got an excellent deal in the process. I am the proud owner of a Yaesu FT-897D w/FP-30 internal PS, LDG AT-897, and 5 vertical antenna's for 40,20,17,15, and 10 m. All for $1050.00. Now that's the good news. The bad news is I've been scanning the 40 meter band for about 3 hours now and I can barely hear anyone, except for one and I found out by his callsign that he is the next town over. I have yet to have anyone answer my call. My feeling is that my transmit is not meeting the range of my recieve, by a longshot. I'm pretty sure my issue is the fact that I live in an apartment and I put the 40 meter antenna out my one window. The possible problem is that the antenna doesn't clear the surrounding 4 walls. I live on the 3rd floor, but the top of the building extends further up from my floor. I don't have access to the roof so I can't move the antenna up there. Does anyone have any ideas? Are my assumptions correct or is it something else? Would putting an antenna "in" my apartment give me a better outcome?
Thanks in advance.
Jethro
I finally got my rig and got an excellent deal in the process. I am the proud owner of a Yaesu FT-897D w/FP-30 internal PS, LDG AT-897, and 5 vertical antenna's for 40,20,17,15, and 10 m. All for $1050.00. Now that's the good news. The bad news is I've been scanning the 40 meter band for about 3 hours now and I can barely hear anyone, except for one and I found out by his callsign that he is the next town over. I have yet to have anyone answer my call. My feeling is that my transmit is not meeting the range of my recieve, by a longshot. I'm pretty sure my issue is the fact that I live in an apartment and I put the 40 meter antenna out my one window. The possible problem is that the antenna doesn't clear the surrounding 4 walls. I live on the 3rd floor, but the top of the building extends further up from my floor. I don't have access to the roof so I can't move the antenna up there. Does anyone have any ideas? Are my assumptions correct or is it something else? Would putting an antenna "in" my apartment give me a better outcome?
Thanks in advance.
Jethro