Topband: 160M Rhombics

[Bill Tippett]

W0BTU:

 > For whatever reason, there's what seems to be a lot of hype about W6AM's
rhombics. Such as:

"The W6AM station was legendary around the world. Don could beat you in a
pileup for some obscure African station no matter what band, and even if
you were on the east coast. And him in Southern California.

"Don was #1 on ARRL's DXCC Honor Roll, and you didn't argue. No matter
where you were, no matter what you were running, Don had beaten you in a
pileup. More than once."

 > Beat anyone on the east coast to Europe from California every time? I'm
sorry, but a rhombic is just not that good, even if you DO have one pointed
at every direction of the compass as W6AM did.

         Absolutely "a lot hype", as you stated.  The real King of 
the Hill in those days was Frank Lucas W3CRA:

Gus Browning, W4BPD wrote (from Ahoy Aldabra! article in February 
1964 CQ Magazine):

"After staying up for the long path opening to the U. S. which was 
4:00 AM local time, I intended sleeping on a small bunk at the rear 
of the boat. After lying down for a while and wondering about the 5-9 
plus 20 db signal that signs W3CRA when all the others on the band 
are S7, I came to the conclusion that Frank must have the world's 
best QTH. When the band is dead he's always S7 and when the W-boys 
are S7 Frank is always over S9. This just isn't once in a while, it's 
an every day occurrence."

Frank did this with a single 3 element homebrew Yagi but his secret 
was location, location, location; as this webpage explains.

http://users.vnet.net/btippett/w3cra.htm

W6AM at the top of the Honor Roll?  More hype.  Charlie Mellen W1FH 
in Boston ran a simple 3 element Yagi and had 311/337 
(current/cumulative including deleted) when W6AM was at 307/332 in 
November 1964.  Here's the *complete* DXCC Honor Roll listing:

http://users.vnet.net/btippett/dxcc_honor_roll.htm

W6AM may have closed the gap for current entitiess in later years but 
W1FH was one of very few to work W6ODD/CR8 from Damao/Diu in 1948, 
which W6AM missed.  W1FH was the first post-war DXCC holder and W3CRA 
was the first pre-war DXCC holder.  Frank apparently quit submitting 
cards for the post-war award but he was very much King of the Hill 
signal-wise as W4BPD verified above.

http://oldqslcards.com/W1FH.pdf
http://hamgallery.com/qsl/deleted/Damao_Diu/w6odd.htm

Just to keep this from being totally off-topic, note the many Topband 
DXers at the bottom of the DXCC page above.

73,  Bill  W4ZV