SWOT

When I got my HF radio, I specifically looked for one that would also do 2m SSB because I had heard about the Side Winders on Two radio club and thought that sounded like fun. I still haven't gotten a suitable antenna, but at last Monday's DCARA meeting, Bob Landrum, W5FKN, suggested I should use my 2m vertical and check in anyway. Last night I did so and I successfully checked into my first SWOT net. In case you don't already know, running a vertically polarized signal against a horizontally polarized one results in approximately a 20db(!) reduction in signal.

The exciting part is that not only could I hear Bob, who is 30 miles from me, I could hear, to varying degrees, several of the other stations, some of which were over 200 miles out. In some cases, I could only tell that someone was there and couldn't really make them out, but, I was receiving a 2m signal from over 200 miles away! Considering this is when using an incorrectly polarized antenna located in a poor position on my house, I'm quite pleased. I could hear Bob no matter which way his beam was pointed and he was making contacts all the way up into Missouri and down to Galveston, TX. I need to redouble my efforts to get an appropriate antenna for 2m SSB.