[Amps] new amp race / antenna take-off angle

Wed May 24 01:42:00 EDT 2017

Don't forget, regardless of antennas, tower, and reasonable power, skill 
trumps almost everything. Knowing when to call in the pileup, makes the 
difference between getting them on the first or second call, or wasting 
your time QRMing the frequency with little to show for it.
Of course, if you have power, the antenna is a good one at the proper 
height "for conditions" AND the skill, then you will do well.  For 
newcomers, listen for a while, listen to when the DX station picks a 
call. If the DX  wants to talk, by all means, talk, but keep it brief. 
If the DX is working stations via call and report, don't go into a spiel 
about your station, weather and location. Let the DX station lead.
There is no proper height for every day and all conditions, that's why 
the big guns have stacks and diversity reception..  Those heights are 
picked statically. So using them puts the odds in your favor. Otherwise 
you do the best you can with what you have. There are people who have 
made the honor roll with simple stations and antennas, but you can bet 
they had skill.  OTOH when things get marginal or the band tends to 
favor other areas, power can make a difference. HOWEVER, if you can't 
copy well enough to get your report on a couple of tries, running power 
to a station you can't copy just makes things more difficult for others.

One note, even a stack of UHF connectors on HF, the total has negligible 
loss.  Those loss figures are from near the upper frequency of usability.

73, Roger (K8RI)

On 5/23/2017 Tuesday 11:37 PM, Leigh Turner wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
> If folk want to learn how to work the world on 160m top band DX from a
> suburban block and cleverly work-around any perceived antenna height and
> size restrictions then I recommend a careful read of Steve's VK5SFA very
> informative website:
>
> http://members.iinet.net.au/~sadler@netspace.net.au/
>
> http://members.iinet.net.au/~sadler@netspace.net.au/tmla.html
>
> A detailed eyebrow raising keynote presentation of this remarkable 160m/80m
> TMLA was given at a technical symposium held at the annual WIA AGM last
> weekend here in Adelaide. The session was augmented the following day with
> live field demonstrations of its on-air performance and auto-tune features.
>
> Steve's impressive 160m logbook of DX contacts racked up for the past year
> of deploying this novel antenna is the envy of everybody here in VK land
> including the sceptical diehard topband aficionados.
>
> This is a prime example of the application of a bit of ingenuity for which
> the amateur radio community are renowned for...to the contrary Jim, rather
> than being doomed to failure as you incorrectly assert one can instead
> experience rewarding nirvana!
>
> The small footprint TMLA works because it's radiating useful power down at a
> low angle to enable long-haul DX propagation path circuits. On Rx it also
> exhibits an exemplary SNR in an urban/suburban environment in respect to
> man-made noise rejection.
>
> 73
>
> Leigh
> VK5KLT
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Amps [mailto:amps-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Thomson
> Sent: Tuesday, 23 May 2017 9:31 PM
> To: amps at contesting.com
> Subject: [Amps] new amp race / antenna take-off angle
>
> Date: Sun, 21 May 2017 19:14:09 +0930
> From: "Leigh Turner" <invertech at frontierisp.net.au>
> To: "'AMPS'" <amps at contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [Amps] new amp race / antenna take-off angle
>
> Precisely correct Peter!
>
> If the HF antenna lobe take-off angle is fortuitously optimal for enabling a
> given DX hop path then QRP Tx power will wing it!
>
> No amount of Tx power or Rx sensitivity / SNR will compensate if this sweet
> spot in the prevailing ephemeral propagation path is missed...
>
> 73
>
> Leigh
> VK5KLT
>
> ##  Both VK land + germany have a 10 meter... aka 33 foot height limit.
> That now effectively just destroyed amateur radio.  I dont know what take
> off angle you are blathering on about Leigh.
> At just 33 ft with your height restriction.... the only angle you are gonna
> have is either straight up...or into the side of you neigbours home. 33 ft
> will not clear anything, and is 100% ineffective.
> Utility poles around na are typ 40 ft high, with the hv wire another 1.5 ft
> above that. The typ home, with its well grounded chicken mesh, just beneath
> the stucco.  Toss in your 400 watt useless ..legal limit, and you are doomed
> to failure.
>
> Jim  VE7RF
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Amps [mailto:amps-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Peter Voelpel
> Sent: Sunday, 21 May 2017 6:26 PM
> To: amps at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [Amps] new amp race
>
> You can't compare antenna gain with transmit power.
> Antenna gain is one part but more important is the different elevation
> angles a directive antenna or the right antenna can supply.
> You can't hear with power anyway.
>
> And that applies to any band.
>
> 73
> Peter, DJ7WW
>
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