Topband: CQ 160M Contest and a question about shunt feeding

[Ford Peterson]

Tom wrote:

...snip...
> The key to winning a 160 contest is receiving. After that
> comes receiving, and then operating and then last 5 or ten
> dB on transmitting.
...snip...

While I generally agree with your assessment, one has to balance the fact that a good percentage of the topband population that participates in these contests is seriously "noise floor challenged" due to limited space and the like.  Under these circumstances, being LOUD makes the difference between a Q and no Q with the challenged station.  A quick check of the HP vs LP scores will show you that about 300 extra Qs are possible on HP, out of about 1200 Qs, suggests a 25% - 33% improvement in Q count by being loud.  The HP stations have a better ability to get up and out of the noise floor at these Rx challenged stations.

With that being said, I can personally attest to the FACT that you don't need much in the way of antenna to be heard by a good share of the Topband community.  My 42.5 foot high,'how the heck does that thing even work' shunt-fed inverted L managed to place me near the top contenders in SOLP during the ARRL 160M contest this year.  I worked 880 people by the end of the first night and finished at 1045 Qs, which should be good for a Top-Ten slot.  My Rx antenna is 49% a 500' E-W beverage (read: short) and 49% a 1/4wL 80M elevated vertical (non-resonant but very quiet), which worked FB as a strong companion to the beverage.  The last 1% were worked on the inverted L, which is the only thing that could hear some really-really weak stations.  It's amazing what you can do with a noisy antenna using an 80Hz bandwidth peaking filter!

As far as beating that "whipper-snapper" of yours, my money is on the experienced op.  I'd put my money on topband experience.

Ford-N0FP
ford at cmgate.com