[CQ-Contest] Medium-Range 80m Domestic Contest Antennas

[Nat Heatwole]

Every now and then there is a CQ-Contest thread dealing with good
antennas to use on 80m in SS (a good summary of one of these threads is
at http://www.qth.com/ka9fox/sweepstakes_ant.txt). The common
suggestions include such things as low dipoles, inverted vees, and
diamond or delta loops. These are great antennas for SS on 80m as they
send the majority of your signal straight up, therefore maximizing your
signal within 400 miles or so of your QTH. This type of range is ideal
for SS because a station can only be worked once, not once per band, and
the territory beyond 400 miles is better covered by 40m-10m.

But what about domestic contests where stations can be worked once per
band rather than once overall, like NAQP, the Sprints, Field Day, etc.?
What type of 80m antenna(s) would work well for those contests? One of
the antennas described above would work well for stations within a 400
miles radius, but, for example, from W3, half of the mid-west, most of
W4 and all of the West Coast and the central states falls outside that
circle. What types of antenna(s) would be optimum for working into these
areas (between 400 and 3000 miles away) on 80m? Is the answer the same
as for SS antennas, only at higher heights? What about verticals or
vertical arrays? Any suggestions?

73, Nat, WZ3AR
<nat at ajheatwole.com>