[CQ-Contest] Multiple direction antennas on one radio..summary

[RT Clay]

> 
> There are similar problems on 160 in contests, and other
> bands, where a 
> tight TX pattern results in others ignoring the existing
> use and they start 
> up. This causes a loss of a run because of QRM, and the
> obvious solutions 
> are only two... to leave the frequency or to go wide
> pattern on transmit and 
> narrow on receive.
> 

In a contest situation once such a lid has started up, it sometime also works to go narrow on the lid :) Point a gain antenna #1 at the lid during transmit, and receive on another antenna #2 pointed in a different direction. Usually antenna #1's pattern has enough leaks in other directions that you can continue to work other stations until the lid moves on.

I also use split stacks of two yagis quite a bit on 20 and 15 during stateside contests from MS (single amplifier of course). From MS the two population centers are northeast and west. If I point a beam at one of these centers, the other is precisely in the null off the end of the elements. I suppose I could use a stack of moxons or similar with a wide forward pattern, but that would sacrifice a lot of dx performance compared to the yagis.

Tor
N4OGW/5