TopBand: Heard Island Update

[Garry Shapiro]

Bill Tippett wrote:

> I personally question the wisdom of trying to maintain four of whatever
> it is in the severe environment of Heard Island.  I would rather have
> one really good and mechanically rugged vertical like the BC Special.
> I also would prefer one good vertical on transmit for the simple reason
> that you may experience unexpected propagation modes and directions.
> This is especially true at Greyline which you mentioned in your announcement.
> 
>         2.  How many Beverages do you plan to put up?  I expect that you
> will experience a brief opening to the Pacific Northwest at your sunset
> (in a SE direction) at the same time as middle and eastern Europe (to the
> NW).  If you don't have Beverages in the right directions, you may actually
> be better off listening on the transmit antenna, especially given that you
> will have NO manmade noise (except your own of course!)  I'm going to give
> this some more thought and suggest some directions for your Beverages.
> Europe, East Coast and Japan will most likely be straightforward short path,
> but some of the other areas may need some forethought.  This is another case
> where an omnidirectional receive antenna may be a nice supplement to Beverages.
> 
>         While I certainly applaud the 160 ambitions of the expedition, I am
> also reminded of the weather problems the South Sandwich group encountered,
> as well as the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) and Murphy's Law.
> It is more important to most of us on Topband that you have a decent signal
> on the band available 100% of the time, than a colossal signal that is
> only intermittently available due to weather or complexity-induced outages.

> Please take my comments in the constructive manner they are intended and
> I'm looking forward to hearing your response.
> 
>                                         73,  Bill  W0ZV
> 
 

Bill:

I take it as a positive that the HI group includes native and/or
resident Minnesotans--WA0PUJ (originally from Iowa, but qualified by
virtue of residing in cold, cold Bemidji), KA6W (from St. Paul) and
K0IR, from Rochester. Glenn and Ted, at least, are certainly experienced
lowbanders, as well. That said, I reacted with the same sense of
disquiet as you when I first heard of the ambitious plans for lowband
antennas. I believe Ralph, K0IR might have been the drive behind the
lowband arrays.

Although I am not conservative by nature, I am, as you, an engineer, and
have learned by bitter experience that simple is good, especially when
one puts oneself at the end of a long ball of thin string. It seems to
me that phased arrays are neither simple nor foolproof under controlled
and benign conditions, much less the extreme conditions one expects at
the ends of the earth.

That said, we should be grateful to note that Battle Creeks are also in
the kit, should the arrays prove too difficult to install/tune/maintain.
For receive, however, Beverages, as we know, have the great advantage of
being repairable and survivable by virtue of their low height and simple
construction, and are  effective far beyond their simplicity. I am sure
these will prove to be the keys to the 160m kingdom, and that THEY
should be a cornerstone of the effort.

I guess what we are really being told is that the capacity/ability
exists to bring not only the kitchen sink but the plumbing, cabinets and
framing. This logistic sumptuousnes--while routine for the
military--rarely exists in the DXpedition world and I suppose that if
all this stuff can be brought, it might as well be. We all hope it works
out, but I will not be too surprised if the foursquares require more
attention than can be given, and wind up on the sidelines.
-- 
Garry Shapiro, NI6T
Editor, The DXer
newsletter of the Northern California DX Club

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