Antenna & Operating Philosphy

[km9p at aol.com]

OK...  Let's say you live in Georgia...  On 10 & 15 meters most of your QSO's
will come from Europe...  I would guess 70 to 75% of your QSO's.  During
sunspot peaks, these two bands can make up 2/3 of your total QSO volume for
an entire DX contest.

Question:  Does it make ANY sense to optimize an antenna for F/B if you live
in Georgia?  

The areas I am interested in rejecting are W5, W6, W7, and W0.  The only
other areas would be the east coast, and I havn't found an antenna that
rejects K1AR and not G4BUO!   So, since an antenna optimized for gain still
looks like it has good front to side rejection, why optimize for F/B in my
location?

Thinking further on this...  Since such a HUGE percentage of my score comes
from Europe on those two bands at the top of the sunspot cycle, wouldn't it
be wise to invest the same percentage of money into optimizing my signal for
those bands in that direction?  How about a 4 square of stacked yagis fixed
to europe?  In the words of Homer Simpson... Mmmm... No rotors!   Mmmmm.. Big
signal!  Mmmm... beer!  When you think about it, isn't that what K1EA has
done?  4 high stack to europe, with the top rotary for other
directions....Gee, doesn't he do pretty well?

Interested in your comments.  Thanks... Bill Fisher, KM9P at AOL.COM


>From J.P. Kleinhaus" <kleinhaj at mary.iia.org  Tue Apr 12 00:05:10 1994
From: J.P. Kleinhaus" <kleinhaj at mary.iia.org (J.P. Kleinhaus)
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 1994 19:05:10 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Response to Rating System (again)
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9404111909.A638-0100000 at mary>

Hello all...my previous message of the same subject was scrambled by
a renegade UNIX mail system.  I hope this one comes out in plain English
and not MIME or DILBERT :-) format!!

In essence, this message is a pretty good likeness of my thoughts on the
subject.
73 de J.P. AA2DU

Are you serious? I kid you not; I started to read that thing and happened
to glance at the calendar and said to myself, "aha, April 1st".  Then
again, we are sandwiched between that auspicious date and April 15th, a
far more serious date, and, upon second glance, there may be more to this
than meets my dulled brain. Casting no aspersions at the authors of the
document, I'm sure they are all honorable and intelligent folk, but I
seriously think they should consider working for the IRS writing the tax
code.  As I indicated in my original message, I'm just an "armchair
contester".  Con't have the stamina or the station to be competative at
the level things have gone to; content myself with picking up the
occasional new band/mode country and giving out a few points to my
favorite charity. I'm sure you've seen those "You know you're getting
old... "things; well, I just thought of a new one. You know you're getting
old when you stop competing because you can't understand the rules of the
game.  Oh, I GET IT!! This is REALLY a joke, and you're trying to egg me
on. Okay, you win; I fell for it. For a brief moment there I was going to
say things like "get a life", or, "I remember when the fellow with the
highest score was rated number 1", but I gotta admit, you REALLY made me
fall for this one... hook, line and sinker. Ought to make a funny story
for the NJDXA newsletter.

Good luck in the contest! 

 
 
 
 


>From Bruce B. Sawyer" <zf8bs at twg.com  Tue Apr 12 00:50:11 1994
From: Bruce B. Sawyer" <zf8bs at twg.com (Bruce B. Sawyer)
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 94 16:50:11 PDT
Subject: Yaesu's Response to CAT problems
Message-ID: <9404112350.AA17888 at eco.twg.com>

>Hi Bruce
>Why don't you call Chip at Yaesu? You'd get a lot of info faster.
>They aren't on Internet.
>73
>Bill K5FUV
>
>
I did call Chip.  For those who are interested, here are the results of that
conversation:

1.  Yaesu knows that SOME 990's work with CT, some don't.  This is
    presuming the unit has the latest ROM software (version 1.30). 
    And, most interestingly, they know that the "some do, some 
    don't" situation is even true among those who use the Yaesu
    computer interface. 
2.  Chip points the finger strongly at K1EA and says he thinks
    "Kenny" might just be beta testing software on his users.  He
    had no response when I told him I knew N6TR had run into the
    same problems with his logging software.
3.  Chip claims there are several commercially-available software 
    packages which do work with the Yaesu computer interface.  He 
    cited N6RJ 2nd op as one example.
4.  Chip mentioned the same dropping resistor that Peter Jennings
    mentioned, except that Chip said he thought I should put one on
    both the TxD and RxD side, not just TxD as Peter had said.
    I cannot explain how it is possible that some software packages
    work with ALL 990's, but with CT you need to put in two
    dropping resistors on the level shifter, and even then some 
    990's won't work.  If anybody buys this one, I have a bridge
    for sale...
5.  It is my impression that the FT-1000 suffers the same problem,
    but I believe Chip thinks the ratio of non-performing units is
    higher among the 990's than among the 1000's.

I should'a stuck with Icom! 
                                                 Bruce/AA6KX