A brief foray onto 40m - FT8 and a mobile whip antenna

Mindful of the impending CQ World Wide DX competitions, and particularly the CW contest in late November, I wanted to deploy an antenna for the CW portion of the 40m band, to which end I purchased a humble mobile whip (I have severe antenna restrictions at my current QTH) and set about tuning it for the low end of 40m. At the same time I thought it would be a good idea to see what daytime FT8 activity there was on this band having only previously used this mode on the higher HF bands (20m thru 10m).

FT8 activity on 40m 2024-10-20

Using my Xiegu G90 and the mobile whip antenna I was pleased to see just how much activity there was on 40m. Granted it was pretty much all local to me but I did see several signals from north American stations, although I was unable to work any of these DX stations. 

I did however work plenty of the closer-in stations over a brief period of operation and was pleased to receive some decent signal reports for my 12w output.

40m spots 2024-10-20 

I also checked on PSKReporter to see where I'd been spotted and this confirmed my operating experience - lots of fairly local spots with a few outliers into eastern Europe, the Baltic states and Scandinavia.

All things considered I was pleased to see that the mobile whip antenna did allow me to get out on 40m and I will look forward to seeing what DX I might be able to work during the CW contest in November. 

I fully recognise that this is a compromise antenna but in my circumstances it's about the best I can do and I will enjoy being able to work some late night CW on 40m with it.