> Someone needs to go back into production on the 2m Big Wheels. The one I
> own(Cushcraft) was used by Tom Smith, W4RXR as he was operating N4T/rover
> this past contest. He worked W4WA EM84 from EM65 on the Natchez Trace. I
> don't think the common loops would do that with 50 watts into them. That
> thing works FB. My experience on 2m SSB is that there are too many guys
> looking for BIG signals and don't want to dig for the weak stuff. I tell
> them, that is why it is called weak signal.In fact, Tom is looking for 220
> and 432 Big Wheels. I know where there are some 6m Squalos that might be
> available. Any ideas on what they would be worth?
> Joe W4AAB
I run a multiop VHF station in Colorado. We looked at the big
unidirectional array
in Maine when a program about it was presented at the Central States
meeting in
Colorado Springs a while back. Having decided that our needs were different
because our 'targets' were all around us, not in one direction, we started
implementing
a plan based on those needs. We run four stacked big wheels on both 222 and
144
MHz. The 222 antennas came from Olde Antenna Lab (w6oal@aol.com) here in
the
Denver area. They and at least two others that I know of make 2M big
wheels. We
have found our omnidirectional high gain stacks to be very useful. My only
regret
with respect to them is that we didn't aquire them years earlier. As for
432, its
in the works. I'll let you know what happens when we get them installed.
The omni stacks were our answer to some of what Joe was talking about above.
When we call CQ on 2M with a KW into stacked yagis there are often stations
at middle distances off our beam heading that try to call back to us with 10
and
25 watt rigs. Often with the beams we couldn't hear the replies. But the
omni
stacks allow us good gain in all directions and now we often hear such
stations
we would have missed in the past. In the January contest we regularly
talked
to KB0HH (EM06), N0LL (EM09), and K5RHR (DM65) with the omni
stack on 2M, and our 222 QSOs with all three were done with the omni stack
there as our 222 yagis were iced up and wouldn't load properly.
Also about rovers this June: Nate is correct, we have been loaning KR0VER
some equipment, and plan to do so again for June. But we also have our
'captive' rover which should be on the air this June as K0KHZ/R. In the
past
this rover has been out under several different calls, and usually has only
visited
a few grids per contest. After last June we decided that it was being
underutilized. This June it will be making a serious full contest period
rove.
So look for John both days during the contest.
73, Jim W0EEA
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