[Skimmertalk] Some info on ON5KQ-skimmer

[on5kq]

Dear,

Some of the regular Reversed Beacon Network users may know my call, as I am
a CW-Skimmer for a long time now.

 

I was not aware, that there is the "skimmertalk" section on Contesting.com,
as I cannot find this section on the navigation pane (left side) of
www.contesting.com <http://www.contesting.com> 

Until today, where I found out.

 

My skimmer is located in Grid locator jo10os in western part of Belgium,
about 200km west of the German border and 50km from the North Sea coast.

I am using a single QS1R and only spot CW - not digital modes.

 

My antenna set up:

Permanently:

-           60m long wire at 1m high to NW (315deg) for all bands

-          60m long wire at 1m high to NE (45deg) for all bands

-          2ele elongated loops, 25m total wire length, each element with
1kOhm termination, spacing between elements 31m (110feet), phasing
180degrees

o   One version to NW (315deg)

o   Another version to NE (45deg)

-          6m vertical, active fed with broadband 18db pre-amp at the
feed-point (this ant is only for reference comparisons)

-          Dipole, 2x15m with open wire feeder to a sym. Tuner, 15m high,
with one wire to North and other wire to south - between two trees - can be
tuned between 1.8 and 30Mhz (usually not used currently, as very noisy
rx-ant)

 

Since 2weeks I have additional low-band antennas, which I set-up for the
winter time, with permission of my neighbor (a local farmer)

-          Single terminated Beverage antenna to 135deg, 350m long, 1.5m
high, 500Ohm termination

-          Single un-terminated Beverage to 90deg, 180m long, 1.5m high -
you may think this beverage has a bi-directional pattern, but I found out,
that unfortunately the backwards sensitivity is very poor. So for west
signals my 2ele elongated loops to NW are much better to receive signals
from Central America on the low-bands.

-          Single terminated Beverage antenna to North East (45deg) 220m
long, 1.5m high, 500 Ohm termination

I can keep this winter-setup until begin of March, after that the antennas
will be taken down, as my neighbor will use the fields again.

 

I hope, DX-stations will not be shy and start calling CQ DX on the difficult
paths (Europe LP from west-coast USA, for example). Doing so, you have a
very good chance to be spotted in Europe in our afternoons, where especially
on 40m it is very crowded band. this gives you additional attention, which
may be necessary on crowded bands .

 

If someone has specific requests of questions, you can easily contact me by
mail

Please see my e-mail adres at QRZ.com.

 

Regards,

 

Ulli, ON5KQ