CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: K8DO
Operator(s): K8DO
Station: K8DO
Class: SOSB/80 LP
QTH: MICHIGAN
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80: 156 17 66
40:
20:
15:
10:
------------------------------
Total: 156 17 66 Total Score = 1
Club:
Comments:
FT1000 MK-V transceiver - TRLOG - and an old 256K Pentium with Windows 98... One
really old op with bad hearing, lousy CW skills, and Alwhatshisname's disease
who drove from 3 states away on Friday to get home in time for the contest...
I use CQWW for antenna testing, nor really for contesting - as you can tell from
the qso to country ratio... This years test antenna, a 2 element vertical array,
is the best yet doubling last years country count... The reference antenna is,
as always, the dipole at 120 feet, hanging in the North-South direction...
Europe is at a 45 degree angle to the pattern - but the towers do not rotate
<sigh> OTOH, the dipole was king on the 6W1 qso...
It is fascinating to follow the change in the vertical arrival angles during the
night... Roughly 2/3 of the time both the vertical antenna and the high dipole
will copy/work the arriving signals, though one or the other may be favored by
an S-unit, or so... At times the dipole is the favored antenna and at other
times the lower angle vertical is head and shoulders better - when the vertical
array is favored it can be slight or as much as 3 to 6 S-units! I have seen
signals that were S7-S9 on the vertical array that were in the noise on the
dipole... The old adage that you can never have too many antennas is still
valid...
There are times when the vertical array and the dipole will show roughly the
same S reading on the signal, but one will make the qso and the other won't...
Of course, it can be pure chance that I don't get the Q on one antenna and then
do get it on the other... Other times, I can tell that the DX station is not
hearing one antenna at all but responds to the other immediately... Yet, the
receive signals are roughly the same... I still don't have a solid theory on
this, but I'm working on it... If only CQWW came more often...
With the two element vertical array having a 10dB, or more, FB ratio the need
for a Beverage is definitely less... The high dipole always has more receive
noise than the two element array... I can often hear better on the directional
array even when using the dipole for transmit... A vertical antenna, a single
or a 2 element array, and a dipole or horizontal loop will give the space
limited ham a better chance at increasing the country count over using just one
or the other...
cheers ... denny
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