In article ,
Torbjørn Morka wrote:
Living in Norway, what band would be the best using only a vertical antenna
on HF ?
Interested in DX with Asia-Pacific-Australia and Africa as well....

The best band for DX is 10 meters. Unfortunately it will not be much
good for about 8 or 9 years. When it is open, a 1/4 wave vertical
antenna and 5 watts will do wonders. There will be some activity during
the summer, but not like at the peak of a sunspot cycle.

Listen around for FM activity repeaters (29.62,29.64,29.66, 29.68) and
SSB around 28.5. In the summer, some days it happens, some days it
doesn't.

20 meters is a good choice, you can get some activity during the day and
around dusk/dawn good north/south propigation. The other evening, about
1700 UTC. I was able to hear Argentina, Japan, Russia, UK, Italy,
Switzerland and a bunch of other stations from Jerusalem using a 10 meter
long wire on a TS-430.

My ground system is not set up yet, so I did not try to work them.

If you can try 40 meters, which is difficult, but not impossible with a
vertical antenna. Lots of nightime activty there. You need about 10
meters of vertical space and room for lots of radials. Not easy for a
stand alone pole, but if you can hang it off of a building or a tree it
would be ok. Avoid having the far end dangling where people can touch it.

Note that 40 meters as you know it (7.0-7.1) is a CW and digital only
band in the U.S. You could try working split, but I've never been
able to hear anything from the U.S. when the broadcast stations have
been off. YMMV.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson