Topband: VP8STI Humor, Design engineer trauma

[W7RH]

Congrats to those out West that have VP8STI in the log. You guys 
certainly had the good draw and the right angle. I did work them on 80m 
using OMNI short vertical and 100W. They however were not even moving 
the S meter.

I offer my theorem on why Western US contacts are infrequent in this 
case. Using my station and beam heading to the SE I worked CE1/K7CA 
using QRP. I could do that from early darkness until his sunrise. 
considering I've worked all of south America with 100W the extra 1500 
miles should not be difficult especially being a trans equatorial QSO. 
The conditions would also have to be very disturbed with no direct polar 
region influence.

Looking at the VP8STI website they provide topographic and satellite map 
of their physical location which is located on Thule Island to provide 
safe harbor. I note to NW is Mt Larsen about 2 miles away. It rises some 
2500 ft and the terrain effectively disrupts everything below 15 degrees 
or nearly half of their vertical beam-width. This antenna is not in salt 
water and a good guess would be that it has about 30 1/4 wave plus 
radials. They have a clean shot to Europe in the far field. The NW path 
is broken by Thule Mountain and along the way is going to pass through 
the Andes Mountains. I would suggest the ground reflection element in 
this case is scattering, which also causes increased path loss. This is 
much like attenuation cause by the Rocky Mountains to Europe from 
western US. Of course this the height of the F layer is a factor as well.

Responding to an earlier post by K7TJR regarding K7ZV mountain location. 
I will take a QTH with extensive wide open flat land or slightly sloping 
down hill over a mountain top any day. The curvature of the earth and 
far field reflection is important (slight far field gain). I am not 
saying that a mountain top won't work for 160. Heck, it might be 
possible to build an antenna that is flexible on take off angle.

73

Bob

-- 
W7RH DM35OS

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
     
     Albert Einstein