Last fall I started setting up my first real contest station. The following
antennas are up now:
Tower 1: 205CA 60'
40-2CD 70'
Tower 2: 4 el 20 m quad -30'ft boom (also has 2 el 15 and 3 el
10)
Tower 3: 155CA at 50'
105CA at 60'
Tower 4: 100' with no antennas installed. Tower is Rohn
triangular 19"/side.
Advice is solicited on the following questions:
1. On the ground, I have a TH7, two more 205CA's, a 40-2CD, and a KLM 10M-6.
Given what is already up, which antennas should I put on the 100' tower? I am
leaning toward the TH7 and 40-2CD. Or should I go with the 205CA and stack it
with another fixed on EU at about 50'?
2. Does anyone have practical experience/suggestions for stacking a TH7 or
other tribander with a monobander?
3. Does anyone have practical experience/suggestions for feeding antennas on
separate towers in phase?
4. I have 3 radio/amp combinations. Should I set up my antennas primarily to
put multiple antennas for a given band on one radio, or should I try to
allocate multiple bands to each radio. I suspect this would depend on the
contest.
These may be basic questions, but my contesting in the past has been limited
to wire antennas or simple, low tribanders. Any advice or information
received will be greatly appreciated.
73, Chas N8RR Lafayette, LA rfpwr@aol.com
>From Felipe J. Hernandez" <0006627542@mcimail.com Tue Jul 4 02:31:00 1995
From: Felipe J. Hernandez" <0006627542@mcimail.com (Felipe J. Hernandez)
Subject: Salt water on the wrong side
Message-ID: <05950704013150/0006627542NA4EM@MCIMAIL.COM>
Saludos!
I have the chance of buying a property at aprox 30 feet
from the water in a secluded beach (very few visitors),this
sounds like a perfect spot for radio, the only problem is
that this location is on the south of the island of PR.
I think that means that unless I plan to operate the ww south
american contest it wont be of much help, but on the other hand
maybe the low bands can be improved. Well does any of you "gurus"
of ground, reflection, antennas and angles can give me any expla-
nation of the way it would perform? or maybe someone that has ope-
rated under the same conditions have any experiences to tell?
Well I know how you would like to see a guy like me happy, but
please dont give me false hopes It would break my heart!
many thanks and cu in radio sport and intsprint
Felipe NP4Z
>From Frank Donovan <donovanf@sgate.com> Tue Jul 4 05:18:08 1995
From: Frank Donovan <donovanf@sgate.com> (Frank Donovan)
Subject: Contest Antenna Questions
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.91.950703233503.10531A-100000@jekyll.sgate.com>
Hi Chas!
I'll add my comments after ur questions!
73!
Frank
W3LPL
On Mon, 3 Jul 1995 RFPWR@aol.com wrote:
RR> Last fall I started setting up my first real contest station.
RR> The following antennas are up now:
RR> Tower 1: 205CA 60'
RR> 40-2CD 70'
LPL: Nice combination on tower 1. Too bad its not taller! 40M beams
LPL: just begin to play at 70 ft, but are a lot better at 100 ft!
RR> Tower 2: 4 el 20 m quad 30 ft boom
RR> (also has 2 el 15 and 3 el 10)
LPL: How tall is tower 2 ????? The answer affects how u use tower 4 !!!
RR> Tower 3: 155CA at 50'
RR> 105CA at 60'
LPL: More than likely the 155CA is degrading the pattern of the 105CA
LPL: pretty badly! 15M directors have the nasty habit of acting like pretty
LPL: good 10M reflectors! 60 ft isn't bad for 10M, but 50 ft is a little
LPL: low on 15M at the sunspot minimum...
RR> Tower 4: 100' with no antennas installed. Tower is Rohn
RR> triangular 19"/side.
LPL: This is a nice tower! You could either stack a pair of 205CAs on it
LPL: at 50 and 100 ft, or put ur 40-2CD on it, or use a
LPL: chrome-moly mast with the 40-2CD 10 feet above the top of the tower.
RR> Advice is solicited on the following questions:
RR> 1. On the ground, I have a TH7, two 205CA's, a 40-2CD, and a KLM 10M-6.
RR> Given what is already up, which antennas should I put on the 100'
RR> tower? I am leaning toward the TH7 and 40-2CD.
LPL: Not a good idea... the 40-2CD will make the TH7 perform very
LPL: poorly on 15M! With all of ur towers, and antennas I'd sell the TH7!
RR> Or should I go with the 205CA and stack it with another fixed on EU at
RR> about 50'?
LPL: Now ur cookin' !! The stacked 205CAs will make a very effective combo
RR> 2. Does anyone have practical experience/suggestions for stacking a
RR> TH7 or other tribander with a monobander?
LPL: Stacking is best done with identical antennas. Stacking a
LPL: tribander with a monobander is asking for trouble...
RR> 3. Does anyone have practical experience/suggestions for feeding
RR> antennas on separate towers in phase?
LPL: The most significant benefit from feeding antennas on separate towers
LPL: is to cover multiple azimuths simultaneously. We do this at 'LPL often!
LPL: No need to worry about phase relationship between the antennas.
LPL: However, its unwise to point the antennas within 60 degrees azimuth of
LPL: each other because unpredictable (probably bad) patterns may occur.
RR> 4. I have 3 radio/amp combinations. Should I set up my antennas
RR> primarily to put multiple antennas for a given band on one radio,
RR> or should I try to allocate multiple bands to each radio.
RR> I suspect this would depend on the contest.
LPL: U don't mention what contests or entry class u plan to compete in...
LPL: Flexibility is good, but at the cost of added complexity,
LPL: which may bite u at the worst possible time! I've opted for simplicity
LPL: and redundancy vice complexity, but in a single op or multi-single
LPL: station the complexity of being able to route antennas to multiple
LPL: stations may be worth the many headaches...
RR> These may be basic questions, but my contesting in the past has been limited
RR> to wire antennas or simple, low tribanders. Any advice or information
RR> received will be greatly appreciated.
LPL: I was in the same boat in 1970, after 11 years of contesting with
LPL: wires from a city lot! W3GRF gave me a 135 foot AB-105 tower and
LPL: contesting has been a lot different ever since!
LPL: Good luck!
RR> 73, Chas N8RR Lafayette, LA
rfpwr@aol.com >
>From Bruce Strong <hs0zbo@sura1.sut.ac.th> Tue Jul 4 07:08:30 1995
From: Bruce Strong <hs0zbo@sura1.sut.ac.th> (Bruce Strong)
Subject: Is This Fun?
Message-ID: <Pine.ISC.3.90.950704130540.5647E-100000@sura1>
On Mon, 3 Jul 1995, Brian Short wrote:
[snip]
>
> I thought this was amateur radio. I have never heard such
[snip]
Hmm... This isn't amateur radio, this is Internet. I can tell the
difference because I ain't usin' no radio now!
Brian, look around you. You transmittin' out in the sky via
your radio when you type this stuff?
Maybe been listn'n two much cw! Like Wayne Green says!
Bruce
hs0zbo@sura1.sut.ac.th
;-)
No malice intended. I make as many mistakes as any of you all do.
>From Steve Merchant <merchant@crl.com> Tue Jul 4 07:28:47 1995
From: Steve Merchant <merchant@crl.com> (Steve Merchant)
Subject: IFDC Check-Log - K6TZ
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950703231714.17043B-100000@crl14.crl.com>
Sorry to have missed the cutoff, but oculdn't seem to get everyone
together for this.
Call: K6TZ Section: Santa Barbara (SB)
Club: Santa Barbara ARC Category: 3A
835 CW QSO's * 2 1670
706 SSB QSO's * 1 706
~~~~
QSO Pts 2376
Power multiplier *2
~~~~
4752
Sections *76
~~~~~~
IFDC Score 361152
Operator Profile:
Expert 2
Intermediate 4
Beginner 25
~~
Total 31
Soapbox: two very long days of antenna work by 12 club members prior
to FD made a large difference to both the scores and the satisfaction
index for everyone. We were also completely set-up by 9:30 a.m. on
Saturday, which took a lot of pressure off the older farxs who
typically end up putting up all the antennas AND doing most of the
operating. Next year's plan is to simply pick up where we left off
this year. Thanks to Tony, Dave and Trey for thinking this IFDC up,
it adds another dimension to Field Day -- next year I'll try to get my
log in on time.
73, Steve N4TQO (@K6TZ)
merchant@crl.com
>From CT1BOH@tpone.telepac.pt (JOSE C. C. NUNES) Tue Jul 4 19:14:11 1995
From: CT1BOH@tpone.telepac.pt (JOSE C. C. NUNES) (JOSE C. C. NUNES)
Subject: wn4kkn needed permission
Message-ID: <Chameleon.950704111636.CT1BOH@>
Hi trey
Mario 5b4wn send me encode file
Is it OK to send rufz as messages to reflector so that evrybody can undecode
them and enjoy the program?
I dont have the time to relay directly to all the requests...
Jose
ct1boh
>From n3rr@cais.cais.com (Bill Hider) Tue Jul 4 12:50:32 1995
From: n3rr@cais.cais.com (Bill Hider) (Bill Hider)
Subject: Lightning....yawn
Message-ID: <199507041150.HAA02308@cais.cais.com>
At 08:56 AM 6/29/95 -0400, Rich L. Boyd wrote:
>
>W0UN told the story at Dayton of watching a thunderstorm march toward his
>station across the wide open spaces of Colorado, the strikes discontinue
>when they reached his QTH, then pick up again on the other side, going
>away. All the hardware apparently is able to dissipate the charge before
>it becomes lightning.
>
>I have occasionally observed a static tic-tic-tic at the end of a coax at
>my place, with no lightning seemingly around.
>
>Rich Boyd KE3Q
>
>
>
I regularly observe (from my office on the 27th floor of a building) high
voltage "static" travelling down the ground wires on the sides of nearby
buildings from the lightning rods at the top of the building to the ground
connection of 20 story buildings across the street from where I work.
This usually happens when there is a thunder storm in the area, however, the
building on which I can observe this "static" is not actually "hit" by
lightning. The grounding scheme used on the building dissapates the charge.
By the way, this was not a one-time occurrance. During a storm, the
discharge static arcs flowing down the ground wires happens every few
minutes, depending upon the severity of the storm. The appearance of the
discharge actually looks like a ligntning bolt traveling down the side of
the building, following the ground wire! This sure raises eyebrows in the
office!
Bill, n3rr@cais.com
>From Trey Garlough <GARLOUGH@TGV.COM> Tue Jul 4 16:29:03 1995
From: Trey Garlough <GARLOUGH@TGV.COM> (Trey Garlough)
Subject: wn4kkn needed permission
Message-ID: <804871743.912668.GARLOUGH@TGV.COM>
> Mario 5b4wn send me encode file
> Is it OK to send rufz as messages to reflector so that evrybody can undecode
> them and enjoy the program?
Ask someone to serve the item via a service such as Anonymous FTP or
an email-based file server so people can download it on demand. Then
you or he/she can post a message announcing where it can be found.
This will work better than a one-time broadcast of the program,
because it will continue to be available long after the announcement
has been sent. In addition, keeping binaries out of CQ-Contest is a
good thing since it is intended to be a discussion group.
--Trey, WN4KKN/6
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