As long as we're talking about antennas and what works -- or doesn't -- here
is my story. When I was in graduate school in the early 70's I lived in an
apartment in Chapel Hill, NC and I ran about 100 feet of RG-8U out to a 20
meter dipole that was stuck up in a grove of small trees....it was up about
15 feet off the ground. I had borrowed a friend's HW-32A (a Heathkit
singleband transceiver that ran about 100 watts for you newbies) and was on
the air trying to work DX.
There was a gal named Darlene who was on an "around the world" trip and she
was operating from 3B9 -- which was very rare at that point in time. I was
hearing her Q5 and she was working stations by call areas. It was rather
late at night and the shack was in the apartment bedroom. My relatively new
xyl was trying to sleep and Darlene was moving painfully slowly through the
1's, 2's and 3's. She got to the 4's (finally) and the crowd was almost as
thick then as it is now. She worked 4's and more 4's and more 4's and still
I yelled K4 Fraaaaance Japaaaaan Charrrrrrlie. After a long time it was
down to one other 4 that I could hear and me calling in that pile-up. She
worked the other guy and said "any more 4's"...and I hollered one more time.
Upon letting up, I heard her say, "I hear no more 4's....QRZ 5's"
It was many years before I worked 3B9...but I finally did....and a Force 12
6 element monobander at 140 feet does a whole lot better in the pile-ups
today....especially when the Alpha is on line....
The laugh's on me....73 de Greg-N4CC
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