Well, Van operated here and I operated a bit. I guess we made a few hundred
contacts.
I had limited time with family commitments occurring during the limited
hours of the QSO party. Here is what I learned:
The QSO party is not like a contest. No running and especially no running in
one direction. People call from all directions. Many of them are weak,
probably low power, so if the TX antenna wasn't pointed right at them it was
a pain hearing them, especially with QRN.
I learned I needed to get the short tower connected to the radio, so I could
have beams in different directions. They I could just bang a switch to
change from NE to west. Since I needed to clean up some wires anyway, most
of the operating time I had between family functions Sunday went to wiring
time. I wound up with a control box that would pick different antennas in
different directions on different towers.
Then I realized how the high antennas are good for long haul band opening
and closing, but are weaker than my lower antennas when the bands are open
good. This re-enforces what I saw looking on skimmer a few months back with
WW4LL's signal compared to a local with tall stacks. I saw the high
antennas, almost certainly because of the many deep nulls in elevation
pattern, would go into some big fades. The signal was more consistent with
the low antennas with cleaner wider elevation patterns. Same pattern as
Fred's signal had compared to higher antennas with elevation patterns split
into multiple skinny lobes.
My 40 antennas are about right, but my 20 through 15 antennas are too high
except for opening the band.
It was so interesting to see the deep long fades on the high antennas I
barely operated. I just kept watching signals. Over and over again. :-)
Tom
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