[CQ-Contest] Question about CQ WPX - Tribander/wires category

[Bill Coleman]

On Jun 4, 2010, at 3:32 PM, Hank Greeb wrote:

> 
> I have a full size 3 element, 20 metre yagi, which I inherited from a 
> silent Key for the effort of taking it down, along with a windmill tower 
> and very heavy radar rotor.
> 
> If I were to put it up someplace on my very modest antenna farm, could I 
> still qualify as a Tribander/wires category?

Not if you used it.

> Or, if I put up a W8JK fixed wire beam for 20/15/10, would it disqualify 
> me as from the Triband/wires category because it CAN work on 17 and 12 
> metres?

Not any more than using a Cushcraft MA5B would.

> A W8JK beam would be easiest - I could point it toward Europe and hope 
> to work a bit more from there.  As is, it was pretty slim pickings to 
> Europe with my 80 metre dipole fed with ladder line.
> 
> Also, I'm thinking of putting up a full wave loop on 80 metres at about 
> 35 to 40' high.  Would this be considered a multi-element antenna if I 
> used it on 40 metres?  How about 20/15/10?

No.

>  I haven't bothered to 
> research the directivity of a multi-wave loop, but I do remember vaguely 
> that one gets directivity and gain, and the radiation angle gets lower 
> as the length of the loop in wavelengths increases.  I think I read 
> somewhere that a "V" beam or a Rhombic would NOT be considered for the 
> "Wires" category. which seems logical because one can get quite a big of 
> gain from a muti-wavelength v-beam or Rhombic.  Of course the horizontal 
> beam width of a Rhombic gets very sharp when the length gets very long, 
> so there's a big tradeoff.
> 
> I see that most of the QRPers don't claim TB-Wires, so I'd like to stay 
> in that category for future efforts.

It's not Tribander-Wires, it is Tribander and Single Element Antennas. 

If you actually had a Rhombic to use on 40, 80 and 160m, it's possible that you could. After all, Rhombics and V-beams have single elements. (eg no more than a dipole.

It is an oddity in the rules that these antennas would qualify, but an OWA antenna for 80/75m would not, since it would have more than one element. 

Practically speaking, though, we all know what a TS installation is -- because there are many, many hams sporting just this sort of installation. 



Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901