[CQ-Contest] SS Beam Strategy from Central US

[n6kl at bemail.com]

Subject: SS Beam Strategy from Central US 
(Or: "Look Out!! He's Got a Beam!")

Question 1: For SS (or other domestic US contests) from the central part of the 
U.S., (in my case Colorado), what do those of you with a single beam antenna 
*aim* at?  Clearly if the band is open just to a particular region, then you 
aim there, and during a pileup for something rare, you can aim there, but when 
conditions are jumping and signals are coming in from all over, what do you do 
with the rotor control?

a) Aim at the eastern seaboard and leave it there, working W6 off the back...
b) During a CQ run, "troll" a bit, pointing to different headings every few 
minutes...
c) Aim it toward regions where you are still missing multipliers (especially 
on Sunday)
d) Anticipate propagation and aim it toward the region where you think 
propagation will be fading soonest...

Or maybe this is all instinctive? 

Question 2: My beam is a portable Hexbeam. It's very portable and works well 
but it is a monobander. I can set it up for any band 20-10m, but changing from 
one band to another takes about 40 minutes. Again, from the Central U.S., if 
you had to pick a band, which would you choose? The height can be only up 35 
feet, so on 20m this is not going to be as effective a height as it would be on 
15m or 10m, but who knows how many hours 15m or 10m will be open?  
My alternate antenna for 20/15/10 are ground mounted Butternut HF6Vs (spaced 
33' apart & phased) and maybe a temporary ladder line dipole up 35'. 

Thanks for listening! If you have any comment, reply here or, direct to me at 
n6kl at bwn.net, and I'll summarize.

73! 
- - Dave Palmer, N6KL/0
Boulder, Colorado
mailto: n6kl at bwn.net




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