Barry, I know what you are saying, while in grad school (76-79) I
operated /VE3 from Hamilton, Ontario. What a difference a 1,000 miles
can make in propagation. Also on 80 my favorite experience (i.e., pure
frustration) while a DXer was for an east coaster to beat out my 4
square/ 1.5 KW into Europe and hear him say "I'm running 100 watts into a
dipole at 50 ft." On those rare night when we had a better opening than
the coast it was a rush to finally beat out that same station.
Also when I operate as part of the N0NI Multi Op (they usually sign N0AC
on RTTY). It is frustrating that we don't have a shot at #1 USA in CQ WW
or ARRL DX in spite of large mono band stacks and towers approaching 200
ft. There is just no way to compensate for the coast advantage. Oh well
someone has to operate from here to make the mult available.
73 W0ETC
On Tue, 27 May 2003 22:02:29 -0000 "Barry " <w2up@mindspring.com> writes:
> 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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> > RTTY@contesting.com
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> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > RTTY mailing list
> > RTTY@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty
>
> --
> Barry Kutner, W2UP Internet: w2up@mindspring.com
> Newtown, PA Frankford Radio Club
>
>
>
>
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