[CQ-Contest] I need a cloudwarmer!

[Steve London]

Related to this topic are these questions...

What does it take to have a big backscatter signal on the high bands ? 
Azimuth diversity (i.e. multiple antennas pointing in different 
directions) ? Take-off angle diversity ? Is the optimum take-off angle 
for backscatter the same as the optimum take-off angle for 1-hop, 
non-backscatter ? I don't think I have ever seen empirical studies or 
models that address this.

I ask these questions, as it comes right on the heels of my SS Phone 
effort. For a number of reasons, I did single-10. I know, no such 
category in SS. It was fun and made for a lively Sunday. About 1160 
QSO's and 80 mults. Missed IA, NE, OK - all in that backscatter range 
from here in NM.

73,
Steve, N2IC

On 11/19/2013 10:15 AM, Tim Shoppa wrote:
> Hans, I feel in the same situation on the high bands at least. I can work
> CA over and over again on 10M but what's the fun in that? On sweeps this
> isn't a great loss because it's once per contest, but in a once per band
> contest like NAQP I end up with decidedly few multipliers on 10M.
>
> I built some low dipoles and vees, which according the models had more high
> angle radiation. But in actual tests, I find they are uniformly down 6-10dB
> no matter what the distance compared to my high wire.
>
> I think the only solution to picking up more mults on the high bands is
> more gain, but that comes with the cost of narrower beamwidth. I have heard
> some of the top-notch midwest contest stations in domestic tests: They
> either have multiple transmit antennas, or some kind of easily switchable
> array, because I hear them cycling through directions on each CQ and then
> when I call them they go "loud" in my direction. I do something similar but
> receive-only with my K9AY loop in a 160 test, because I use foot-switches
> to pick the direction, and the nulls are so deep that when I'm listening SE
> that a loud New England station just isn't there, that I routinely cycle
> direction after each CQ.
>
> Tim N3QE.
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