I hate to rub it in, but I will anyway :.)
Several years ago, I got dragged to the in-laws for Tnxgiving weekend
(CQWW CW weekend, for you RTTY-only guys). I made arrangements to
operate part-time at a big-gun multi station in the Cleveland area
(K8AZ). On Friday night, I was on 40 CW running a 2 over 2 stack,
with the upper antenna at 160 ft or so. The rate seemed kinda slow,
about 60/hour. I said to one of the regulars at the next rig, "I
can't get a good run going, only 60/hour." He replied, "Welcome to 8
land."
Got home Sunday afternoon (EPA, about 60 miles from the Atlantic
Ocean, as the RF flies) and thought I'd play around a little in the
contest with my own station - same 2 el Yagi as K8AZ, mine at 86 ft.
First hour on 40 CW, worked 120 stations on 40m!
It also reminds me of when I lived 1 mile from the ocean in NH, in
the mid 80s. I was in a condo, so only had a dipole in an attic crawl
space, up about 30 ft. Europe was consistently 20-30 over 9 on 20 and
40m, on the wire!
73,
Barry W2UP
On 27 May 2003 llindblom@juno.com wrote:
>
> When I saw the presentations at Dayton I was in total agreement with all they
> said as they were all things that could help a score. But they will not help
> as much from for a Black hole station.
>
> >From the black hole you have to learn to accept frustration. Or, at least
> >trying to learn to accept frustration. You also have to learn to latch on
> >to the occasional small reward/reinforcer. As in when you bust through a
> >pile-up of east coast stations for a rare mult in a DX test. Those
small thing help keep you going through the lean times (reading the contest
results).
>
> For me the frustration is in knowing that a 3 high stack of TH-7s on 123 ft
> of tower and 4 square arrays on 40, 80, & 160 is never going to be
> competitive with the likes of W1ZT or other east coasters, let alone a bijou
> lander like AA5AU. Or should, I be frustrated at being that poor an
operator? Easier to blame location than my self;-)
>
> Some station in OH, MI, etc will claim to be in the black hole. From my
> perspective they are in what I term the "mideast." I call it that as those
> stations are typically 300 or more mile east of here.
>
> About five or more years ago there was an NCJ article that attempted to
> define the black hole by the polar aurora zone and having to beam through it
> to hit major population centers. It seemed living in a state that bordered
> on the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers was a large part of the
criterion. And, dear old Iowa has a border with both of those rivers which is
why we are called the land between to rivers.
>
> >From the center of the black hole
>
> 73 de W0ETC in IA
>
> --- "Phil Cooper" <pcooper@guernsey.net> wrote:
>
> Hi Don,
>
> Many thanks for putting the presentations on your website! They all make
> interesting reading, and I am sure some of us can learn a thing or two from
> at least one of the slide shows.
> The way those PowerPoint presentations have been put into the web pages is
> excellent, and it looks very professional! Well done that man!
>
> "Improve your antennas" is the one part that defeats me at the moment, due
> to lack of space, both on the flat plane, and also vertically.
>
> It was interesting to note that there are differences between each of the
> thoughts, and I guess that is partly due to the geographical locations of
> the three of you.
> I wonder what thoughts someone from the "Black Hole" has on these? Anyone
> care to comment?
>
> Well done Don, George and Jay,
> 73 de Phil GU0SUP
>
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--
Barry Kutner, W2UP Internet: w2up@mindspring.com
Newtown, PA Frankford Radio Club
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