Topband: 160M Rhombics

[ZR]

It still boils down to location and propagation.

Nobody is King all the time and some hams have real jobs that keep them away 
during some important openings.

Charlie had a very modest and average location and was near the top of DXCC 
even before he put up a yagi. Maybe one of those places rumored to exist 
where the magic lines of force happens.

Dean, as N6BV/1,  also modeled my QTH for the original TA program that was 
part of the K6STI AO/YO package. You might want to check it out. I make no 
particular claims but contest results during the stations active days as 
well as the ease I worked DX on any band support Deans analysis. He started 
the program to see why I consistently beat him during the many times our 
paths crossed. He was on another hilltop about 15 miles away and we were 
LOS.

I felt it was my homebrew stacked monobanders versus his 4 high stack of 
TH-7's but he showed it was the location.
Contesting became boring and the stacks were scaled down to single antennas 
and I get on when I feel like it and no longer driven.

BTW, I worked W3CRA Thursday on 40M AM, it is now the Collins Radio 
Association often on daily with W3ST operating.

Carl
KM1H


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Tippett" <btippett at alum.mit.edu>
To: <topband at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2013 6:23 AM
Subject: Re: Topband: 160M Rhombics


> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________
> Topband Reflector
>
>
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