Topband: Does flooding radial field help

[Herbert Schoenbohm]

The was certainly short skip within 300-400 miles and I work several
Carribean station within that range.  However, the unusual part of that was
an Italian who kept calling CQ where is was calling CQ and was S9 on the EU
Beverage. I never even got a QRZ from him. I had to null him out with the
NCC-1 just to work any states.  I worked a few in the southeast but nobody
even spotted me for the entire night except for one NY station with good
ears. I have come to the realization that 100 watts under conditions like
this are futile.

Herb, KV4FZ

On Sat, Feb 24, 2018 at 2:26 PM, W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu at w0mu.com> wrote:

> It was conditions and it was SSB!  I could not hear PJ4G last night.  The
> only DX that was "loud" was ZF2.
>
> W0MU
>
>
>
> On 2/24/2018 10:07 AM, Jack Henry via Topband wrote:
>
>> I was struggling to be heard in the contest last night.  Only 4 stations
>> were worked and they needed repeats.  All readings in the shack were normal
>> and I was hearing many stations with moderate signals.  The only thing that
>> was different was that we were irrigating the grass.   The grass is
>> irrigated by flooding from a small canal that is on the edge of the
>> property.  The canal is fresh water fed from an Andean river.  There was
>> about a quarter of an inch of water visible over the mowed grass.  I am
>> wondering if the water is effecting the antenna performance.
>>
>> I do not have a super station and only run 800W.  The antenna is a 45
>> foot vertical T loaded at the top.  There are 32 radials 60 to 80 feet in
>> length of different type wires.  All are insulated with various materials
>> and are buried about an inch below the soil level.
>>
>> Anyone have any experience or knowledge on this.  The soil is drying now
>> in the blistering sun so maybe we will see if there is any improvement
>> tonite.
>>
>> Thanks. Jack OA4TT
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
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