Desperately seeking contact - Operating QRP HF from Aland Islands

During a holiday trip to Aland Island and Eckerö to be precise, I tested what I've been thinking about for many years;

Operating HF using the barbed wire of the fence for the local animal park as antenna. The wire is long, isolated from the ground with wooden pillars, and post probably there's no pulsing electricity fed to the wire either.

I used the 'old' workhorse Yaesu FT-817 as the TRX. With internal battery pack it delivers about 2-3W RF output power. The balun is a 9:1 longwire balun built to a film canister.

The antenna was happily almost resonant on all HF bands, according to the FT-817 built-in SWR meter. I tried both lower and upper barbwires, the top one was not as good as the lower antenna, using which I worked few OH-hams on 3699 kHz.

So yes I admit, I do operate HF too. I enjoy mostly listening but sometimes it's advisable to say something.



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