I agree it is not illegal to operate
from someone else's station during a
contest and use your own call, but I think
rule 10 clearly means (IMHO) that these contacts
would not valid for DXCC credit since you
are not the station licensee. Perhaps a
DXCC maven from the ARRL can clarify this matter.
73, Ed (running and ducking)
--
Ed Jensen, K5ED, El Paso, TX (ae110@rgfn.epcc.edu)
>From gdo@aloft.att.com (Glenn D. O'Donnell) Thu Jun 1 21:50:11 1995
From: gdo@aloft.att.com (Glenn D. O'Donnell) (Glenn D. O'Donnell)
Subject: Antenna/Tower Advice Needed
Message-ID: <9506012050.AA25045@dasher>
Hello fellow contesters (there, I've got the "C" word in here :-),
Some of you may know me as a tiny little pistol with the wimpy antennas.
I'm embarking on a project to change that and I'm requesting some help from
those of you with more experience than I. While I've been doing my homework
reading up on the subjects, I have very little practical experience with
towers and good antennas.
I'm looking for a good general purpose antenna system with a special
emphasis on single-op contesting (there, I said it again :-). I have a
decent rig (IC-736) and I live on 3 wooded acres secluded on top of a hill.
While I don't have the $$$ or the QTH for a super-station (more on the QTH
later ... ugh), I'd like to build a nice compromise.
My constraints are:
QTH: While almost ideal for ham radio in many respects, I have a BIG
problem ... a small, grass-strip airport about one mile away.
I'm 250 feet higher than the airport and they fly smack-dab over
my house on approach. Sometimes I wonder if they'll clear all the
treetops! Obviously, this limits my tower height. I estimate my
trees to be about 50 feet high, so I must limit my antennas to
approx 60 feet max.
Someday in the next few years, my XYL & I will look for another
QTH suitable for a possible future superstation. Who says my
XYL doesn't support my "habit"?! She bought me all my equipment
too!
TOWER: Again, the limit appears to be ~50 feet of tower plus mast.
I have room for guying and the Rohn towers look nice and strong.
With this in mind, I'm leaning towards 45G. 25G would probably
be enough, I'd like to reuse it at the future QTH. I also want
the extra strength for big antennas and my own support. I'm not
exactly the right size to be a jockey, if you catch my drift! :-)
ANTENNAS: I have a bit of a financial constraint here. After forking
out the dough for the tower, I'll only have a few hundred for the
antennas. A tribander is the first antenna that comes to mind.
I can build wire antennas for 40/80/160 and I'm looking for any
recommendations here also. I have some ideas from ON4UN's book,
something I HIGHLY recommend.
As I've been looking at the tribander market, I keep coming back
to the Force 12 antennas. The C3 looks like a nice design and it
appears to have good performance relative to the A3S and other
trapped antennas. The C4 looks even better with the addition of
a 40m dipole. Does anyone have any experience with any of the
Force 12 products in general and the above antennas in particular.
I may be able to stretch the budget for a monobander or two instead
of a tribander. This will come at the expense of the missing band(s)
but with 10 and 15 in the dumper, should I focus on optimizing 20m?
I can buy 15m and 10m monobanders next year to prepare for the
rise in the sunspots. Any ideas on this?
ROTOR: I want something that has presets and can eventually support
computer control from CT. The Yaesu G800SDX looks good. Are there
any other recommendations? If I plan on monobanders and an eventual
stack for 20/15/10, I'll need something stronger. I'd still like the
computer control.
Thanks in advance. Please reply direct to gdo@aloft.att.com so we don't
eat up bandwidth on the reflector. I'll post a summary at a later date.
With any luck, I'll have something decent in time for the Autumn/Winter
contest season. Thanks again and CU in the QRM!
73 de Glenn O'Donnell, N3BDA (no cute signatures or disclaimers!)
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