Topband: K5P in Zone 14

[James C. Hall, MD]

Hi Lloyd:

Normally, I have reversible Beverages deployed but this year I decided to
purchase a shared apex loop (SAL) from Array Solutions. Unfortunately, due
to work, poor wx, and recent illness, I have been unable to deploy it. So
yesterday was a relatively warm day and the light rain had moved east - I
decided to just lay 500 feet of insulated wire (I purchased at Lowe's)
running SW and just jam the end into the Beverage connector outside (an F
connector). Inside at the station, I have an ICE preamp (also preamps in the
K3 which were unnecessary) and that was it. Nothing fancy. It works quite
well on 80M but sometimes the 4-square verticals do better. 

I was pleasantly surprised to hear K5P just booming in last night and it was
a one call deal and in the log. Hopefully I'll hear them on 80M and I can
compare better. This morning when I checked (about an hour before SR), he
was still loud and clear on 160M.

To be clear, the BOG is just a throw it on the ground, last minute antenna
for me. I think you could use more length on your antenna. 

73, Jamie
WB4YDL

-----Original Message-----
From: Lloyd - N9LB [mailto:lloydberg at charter.net] 
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2016 2:06 PM
To: 'James C. Hall, MD'
Subject: RE: Topband: K5P in Zone 14

Hello James!

I see you have a 500 foot bog, I need some advice.

I put down a 200 foot BOG for 80m & 160m.  Seems to work well on 80 but
virtually no directionality on 160m.  I was told that performance would drop
dramatically on both 80 and 160 if I went over 200 feet in length.

I do have a ground rod already in the earth 300  feet beyond the starting
point of my bog, but it won't be fun relocating things, but if it would
improve 160m ( even at the cost of 80m) I'd make the effort this winter.

Please tell me about your 500 foot BOG.

73

Lloyd - N9LB


-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of James C.
Hall, MD
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2016 12:35 PM
To: Roger D Johnson <n1rj at roadrunner.com>
Cc: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: K5P in Zone 14

K5P was very loud last night and I had just thrown a 500' BOG down yesterday
afternoon. Craig K9CT was at the key. I'm in NW TN, about 30 miles East of
MS River.

73, Jamie
WB4YDL

Sent from my iPad

> On Jan 16, 2016, at 12:27 PM, Roger D Johnson <n1rj at roadrunner.com> wrote:
> 
> According to Clublog's Leaderboard stations east of the Mississippi 
> are
almost nil.
> 
> 73, Roger
> 
> 
>> On 1/16/2016 12:58 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
>>> On Sat,1/16/2016 9:31 AM, Doug Turnbull wrote:
>>> The propagation gods are not favouring us at all.   K5P is a hard
>>> reach on most bands and once you go away from 17 through 40 meters 
>>> there are literally only about five QSOs total on the other bands.
>> 
>> Now you know what life can be like in W6 with expeditions that are in 
>> the back yard of EU. :)
>> 
>> The island K5P is a protected wild life refuge, and access is quite
restricted, even to the extent of the size of aircraft they could land on
the island. That caused them to decide to travel light, including antennas.
Rigs are K3s with KPA500s, HF antennas are SteppIR verticals. The 160
antenna is a Battle Creek special, and I suspect they have run some
Beverages. BTW -- that aircraft got even smaller a day or so before they
took off, causing them to trim the team by several men.
>> 
>> Here in NorCal, we're only 3400 miles from them over water. Sigs are
great on 160M, not great on the HF bands. 160M is a lot louder than 80M. I
managed to work them yesterday on 10 and 12 CW, but I had to wait several
hours for them to get from "vapor" to 229 to call them (and be able to copy
my call), and they never got louder than that 229.
>> 
>> I know about half the team, and I know they are dedicated to putting
unique calls in the log, and are favoring EU as much as they can when they
think there's an opening. On one of their first nights on 30M calling EU,
there were EU spots saying that 10115 had bad QRM, please go to 10116. I
emailed one of the guys, and the next day they were on a different
frequency.
>> 
>> 73, Jim K9YC
>> _________________
>> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
>> 
> _________________
> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
_________________
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband