[CQ-Contest] Are beams needed for competitive contesting from the Caribbean?

[Ria Jairam]

Hi Rudy,

They aren't needed if you're close to the water. Many have used verticals
on the beach with great success. Especially since we are headed for solar
minimum low bands will be more easily done with verticals.

For beams and towers, salt water air could be a problem, especially if
you're on the east coast since the trade wind blows from the Northeast. I
remember in NE Trinidad even the telephone lines were always noisy due to
corroded connections. But it's not an insurmountable problem and if you're
inland it's not too much of an issue.

Ria
N2RJ
On Sun, Jun 25, 2017 at 9:55 PM Rudy Bakalov via CQ-Contest <
cq-contest at contesting.com> wrote:

> The subject says it all. I was wondering what the experience of those of
> you who have contested from the Caribbean is. Assuming running full 1500W
> power, is a beam really required? Is it more important to hear well than to
> be heard (my assumption)?
> So, here's the big picture- we have a vacation rental property on HR9 and
> I'd like to make it available to hams/contesters as well. On the flip side,
> I am very concerned about the appearance of towers, beams, etc.
> From HR9, I really need to directions- 330 for NA and 30 for EU. I can do
> them easily with two OCF dipoles. The dipoles will be about 30' up, the
> property is on a hill and the elevation drops by about 20' about 30 yards
> from the house and a total of 130' about 500 yards from the house. Further,
> I plan on building full size verticals for 40 and 80 and some sort of a
> full size sloping vertical for 160. 4SQ RX plus beverages in the two
> directions I mentioned already.
> Is this setup enough for competitive SOAB effort/score? Do I need to
> include a tower, rotator, and a beam? The maintenance of anything in the
> Caribbean scares the heck out of me.
> Rudy N2WQ
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