[RTTY] re: the Black Hole

[Dave Sjolin]

While 0 land may be a black hole in terms of DX, its not as bad for RTTY
Roundup and perhaps for Field day, Sweepstakes and other contests where
there are plenty of US stations to work on 40 and 80 meters.

Many times during the Roundup I end up working more stations on 40 than on
20. One year I was able to knock off WAS during a Roundup from Missouri
using 300 watts and a vertical. The bulk of the stations and state
multipliers were worked on 40.

73 de Dave, N0IT


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim McDonald" <n7us at earthlink.net>
To: "Nelson Moyer" <ku0a at mchsi.com>; "'RTTY'" <RTTY at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: RE: [RTTY] re: the Black Hole


> "Is this Heaven?  No, it's Iowa."
>
> So the line from the movie, "Field of Dreams," is not really true?
>
> I wasn't active in RTTY when I lived in Mason City as a teen in the late
60s, but I did work 185 countries on CW and SSB in a pretty short period
without an amplifier.  In retrospect, the sunspot peak and 10M may have had
something to do with it.
>
> Jim N7US
> ex-WA0OTE
>
> -------Original Message-------
> From: Nelson Moyer <ku0a at mchsi.com>
> Sent: 05/28/03 08:18 AM
> To: 'Tom Moore' <wx4tm at tm-moore.com>, 'RTTY' <RTTY at contesting.com>
> Subject: RE: [RTTY] re: the Black Hole
>
> >
> > Having spent the past 21 years in Iowa, I can identify with your
> sentiments about the 'black hole'. It's particularly discouraging on 6
> meters at this high latitude inland RF wasteland. Zeros are the Rodney
> Dangerfields of ham radio. DX stations running call areas get to nine
> and go back to 1! Either that or propagation falls out while they're
> working the 6s and 7s. But--- I've worked 222 on RTTY in the past two
> years, having just started that mode after working out most of the other
> bands/modes I can hear from Iowa. I'm using a TH-11 at 50 feet and a
> max. of 600 watts when necessary. I've worked Asians on RTTY that took
> many years to work on other modes, e.g. XW, XU, HS, VU, S2, JT, etc.
> Probably the fact that there's less competition on RTTY explains the
> relative ease of logging these exotic locations. The real problem with
> the zero call area is on 40 and 80 meters (I don't operate on 160).
> Unless you have lots of space for beverages, four squares, etc. you're
> extremely limited on the low bands, and there's always the East Coast
> Curtain to contend with. It's tough to see the cluster spots from the
> East Coast where zones 17, 18, 21, and 22 are coming in at S9 and I
> can't hear them. Maybe someday....
>
> Nelson, KU0A
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rtty-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:rtty-bounces at contesting.com]
> On Behalf Of Tom Moore
> Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 5:44 AM
> To: RTTY
> Subject: [RTTY] re: the Black Hole
>
> Lived there for a while.. 6 yrs in Iowa back in the 80's.. put up a 50ft
>
> tower and tribander.. never heard much.. seldom heard anything at
> all!!.. it just sat there most of the time..
>
> Whoever, at the FCC, assigned the 'ZERO' to that part of the country
> knew exactly what he was doing..  No wonder we have so many DXpeditions
> going there.. It really is a foreign country!!
>
> There's been many theories suggesting why its so bad..
> Mine is that the natural ground is messed up by all the chemicals used
> by the commerical farmers and the resulting negative excrements from the
>
> cow and pig farms.. hi hi.. (whatever you do, don't ride a motorcycle
> down a back road in Iowa)..
>
> like I said.. lived there for 6 yrs.. finally wised up and got at first
> opportunity!! Hi..
>
> Tom WX4TM
>
>
>
>
>
>
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