Topband: K5P in Zone 14

Sat Jan 16 17:02:41 EST 2016

>From what I have read a 500 foot bog is too long for 160 meters due to its proximity to earth.  If memory serves something less than 300' (like 250-270) outperforms 500 feet or longer.

73,

Bob AA6VB

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 16, 2016, at 1:58 PM, James C. Hall, MD <heartdoc at nwtcc.com> wrote:
> 
> 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
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