Jack, Last night in the CQ 160 SSB contest I called CQ for hours and only
worked a few stations mostly within a few hundred miles. Eu's were coming
in but none heard me. Also, I could not hold a frequency anywhere. I did
work LU2DKT and a few PY's. It was brutal trying to work anyone with 100
watts. On my IC-7300 spectrum display, the band was loaded with signals
and some very strong. I was pointless to call them as they just CQ'ed back
in my face. These were stations I never had a problem working before. As
far as you fresh water is concerned just consider it a good insulator and a
reasonable way to absorb your power like a resistor connected to the feed
point. In Minnesota, (W0VXO) I put a vertical about 100 feet out in the
shallow portion of a big lake and had to struggle to work anyone. However
when I was an engineer for WIRA in Fort Pierce, FL we had the AM tower out
in the Indian River at the end of a pier. The water was very very brackish
as an inlet to the Atlantic. There are about 16 radial at the base an
weighted with concrete blocks to the river bottom. It worked very well
according to an FSM at a mile and was well above what was expected. The
only problem we had was that the base current would change as the tide
would rise and fall.
It will be interesting to see when your field dries out
Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
On Sat, Feb 24, 2018 at 1:07 PM, Jack Henry via Topband <
topband@contesting.com> wrote:
> I was struggling to be heard in the contest last night. Only 4 stations
> were worked and they needed repeats. All readings in the shack were normal
> and I was hearing many stations with moderate signals. The only thing that
> was different was that we were irrigating the grass. The grass is
> irrigated by flooding from a small canal that is on the edge of the
> property. The canal is fresh water fed from an Andean river. There was
> about a quarter of an inch of water visible over the mowed grass. I am
> wondering if the water is effecting the antenna performance.
>
> I do not have a super station and only run 800W. The antenna is a 45 foot
> vertical T loaded at the top. There are 32 radials 60 to 80 feet in length
> of different type wires. All are insulated with various materials and are
> buried about an inch below the soil level.
>
> Anyone have any experience or knowledge on this. The soil is drying now
> in the blistering sun so maybe we will see if there is any improvement
> tonite.
>
> Thanks. Jack OA4TT
>
> Sent from my iPad
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