I Suspect that the lack of discussion is the lack of experience to
espouse.... I will have one or two for contest season to try....Then I will
have an opinion...
Denny
>From Rich L. Boyd" <rlboyd@CapAccess.org Thu Aug 31 18:44:14 1995
From: Rich L. Boyd" <rlboyd@CapAccess.org (Rich L. Boyd)
Subject: high vs. low 20M beams
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91-FP.950831133815.17258K-100000@cap1.capaccess.org>
I think it was CQWW phone last fall, I dabbled, using packet for
about 350 QSOs. Heard a W6/4X on 14165 with lots of nearby QRM.
Hadn't seen it spotted on packet, did a DX database search, sure
enough, not spotted, nor any other 4X on 20. He was pretty weak but
copyable. Called him for a while, while he ran EU. Finally figured,
"What the heck..." and went ahead and put him on packet. W3LPL
showed up quickly and got him in a few calls. I could tell by 4X's
reaction that he was somewhat surprised to hear a U.S. station. He said
something "Oh...just a minute!" and I could hear his signal increase as
he apparently turned his beam. By then other U.S. stations were arriving
on freq. in response to the packet spot, like N2RM and others. I was the
second or third station to get through, W3LPL being first. Not too much
trouble being heard once he turned the beam.
The difference, as I see it, was my 6-el 20 monobander being at 120' and
W3LPL's 5-el 20 (comparable boom length -- his is 48', mine is 46') being
at 190'. There are other differences, his site probably having a better
slope to it, etc., and his beam is a modern computer optimized design and
mine is the old-fashioned Telrex design, but I'm guessing it was the
antenna height difference. Frank likes to say the lower 20M antenna will
be better 95% of the time, but I think that other 5% can give you
memorable pleasurable contesting experiences or memorable contesting
frustrations. hi. 73
Rich Boyd KE3Q
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