On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:00:02 -0500, Michael, Dana A wrote:
>What I would like to know is
>what others use as their first choice for listening when
"running"
>before switching to a better RX antenna?
I have two transmit antennas for 160 -- a vertical, and a dipole
at 90 ft. The vertical is by far the most effective within a few
hours of sunrise or sunset. My default RX is whichever of those I
am transmitting through. If I hear signals in the mud, I switch
between Beverages or the other transmit antenna to dig them out.
This method of operation has allowed me to catch the beginning of
a JA run, for example, that I otherwise might have missed. Once
the run begins, I'll switch to the JA Beverage. I can get away
with that because I am blessed (so far) with relatively little
local noise most of the time. I realize that others are not so
fortunate.
One of the common failures of east coast stations during contests
is that they miss a lot of Q's because they never seem to be
listening west, especially early in the evening. It is VERY common
for VE3, W8, W9, and some W3/W4's to have solid signals here in
Santa Cruz an hour or more before my sunset, and to remain Q5 for
much of an evening. And it is common for W6/W7 stations, me
included, to be calling them without success.
73,
Jim Brown K9YC
Santa Cruz, CA
_______________________________________________
Topband mailing list
Topband@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/topband
|