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Re: [CQ-Contest] Are beams needed for competitive contesting from the Ca

To: Ria Jairam <rjairam@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Are beams needed for competitive contesting from the Caribbean?
From: Rudy Bakalov via CQ-Contest <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Reply-to: Rudy Bakalov <r_bakalov@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2017 22:03:40 -0600
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
I am about 500 yards from the beach and 120' ASL.

Looking at the 3 year old aluminum boxes of the AC units it is pretty scary 
that everything rusts, even aluminum. I can't imagine a rotator lasting too 
long.

Plan B is to attach to palm trees 2 x A4S yagis fixed on NA (330) and EU (30 
degrees); they won't be very high though.

Rudy N2WQ

Sent using a tiny keyboard.  Please excuse brevity, typos, or inappropriate 
autocorrect.


> On Jun 25, 2017, at 8:09 PM, Ria Jairam <rjairam@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Rudy,
> 
> They aren't needed if you're close to the water. Many have used verticals on 
> the beach with great success. Especially since we are headed for solar 
> minimum low bands will be more easily done with verticals. 
> 
> For beams and towers, salt water air could be a problem, especially if you're 
> on the east coast since the trade wind blows from the Northeast. I remember 
> in NE Trinidad even the telephone lines were always noisy due to corroded 
> connections. But it's not an insurmountable problem and if you're inland it's 
> not too much of an issue. 
> 
> Ria
> N2RJ
>> On Sun, Jun 25, 2017 at 9:55 PM Rudy Bakalov via CQ-Contest 
>> <cq-contest@contesting.com> wrote:
>> The subject says it all. I was wondering what the experience of those of you 
>> who have contested from the Caribbean is. Assuming running full 1500W power, 
>> is a beam really required? Is it more important to hear well than to be 
>> heard (my assumption)?
>> So, here's the big picture- we have a vacation rental property on HR9 and 
>> I'd like to make it available to hams/contesters as well. On the flip side, 
>> I am very concerned about the appearance of towers, beams, etc.
>> From HR9, I really need to directions- 330 for NA and 30 for EU. I can do 
>> them easily with two OCF dipoles. The dipoles will be about 30' up, the 
>> property is on a hill and the elevation drops by about 20' about 30 yards 
>> from the house and a total of 130' about 500 yards from the house. Further, 
>> I plan on building full size verticals for 40 and 80 and some sort of a full 
>> size sloping vertical for 160. 4SQ RX plus beverages in the two directions I 
>> mentioned already.
>> Is this setup enough for competitive SOAB effort/score? Do I need to include 
>> a tower, rotator, and a beam? The maintenance of anything in the Caribbean 
>> scares the heck out of me.
>> Rudy N2WQ
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