I leave Friday for Dubai again. I have spent a great deal of money and effort
trying to reach the US on top band. Past efforts were a disaster. This time I
hope to be more successful.
Prior to 1994 I was not a top band enthusiast and had no experience. In the
past two years I have built an inverted L, beverages, etc. for my home station
and now understand what needs to be done equipment wise. In two years on a
small lot with only an antenna at 28 feet I worked all continents and dxcc.
In 1993 I bought a GAP vertical for A6 in hopes of taking the the easy path to
top band. Needless to say...it was not a well thought out strategy.
I have shipped over 2000 feet of wire to Dubai (thanks to K1VR) and am hand
carrying a beverage/preamp kit and variable capacitor (this is on loan from the
Battle Creek Special boys--thanks, Geo and Charlie). We will have an inverted
L
and 580 foot beverage plus as many radials as I can get from the remaining wire.
Saeed has bought a 60 foot PVC mast and it is already up. I intend to have an
inverted L with the horizontal section running from the mast to the Southeast
so
it has the best shot to the Northwest (EU and North America are between 320 and
355 degrees). If my information is wrong and your experience is different now
is the time to let me know (to me not the list).
In any case, I intend to get up the antenna on day one (3 Nov.) and plan on
activity each day at 20:00 for a few hours to catch the JA/VK sunrises, and
then
sleep for a few hours and get up again for a few hours with EU and then catch
the grayline to North America. My sunrise is at 02:30 and I plan on working
North America only from 02:00 until the band dies. I trust EU will cooperate
after they have had two hours of activity. To date I know of only 1 North
America qso with A6 (VE1ZZ, who else) and hundreds of EUs are in my log from
past years.
QRG: 1828-1830 split up 2. CW (of course).
I will not put up any antennas for 40/80. I believe the tribander is in need
of
major repair and will concentrate on getting the KT34XA fixed so I can make
good
on promises for RTTY. To date I have been the only A6 op on rtty so while on
HF
I will concentrate on that mode. I am also bringing sat. gear and will make an
effort for AO 10. There are some good EU/A6 windows (unfortunately some are at
Grayline and others are when I am working.....).
In between all this I need to work Monday thru Thursday and leave Friday night.
Should be a busy week.
CU on TOP BAND!
73
Don
____________________________________________________________
- -
- Don Greenbaum -
- don@aurumtel.com wb2dnd@aurumtel.com -
- Duxbury, Massachusetts, USA -
____________________________________________________________
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