Topband: JAs in "droves"

[Brad Anbro]

Hello all,

I'm just one of the little pip-squeaks on 80 & 160 meters; my current totals on those two
bands are 304/295 and 222/220 wkd/cfmd on those bands respectively. Since moving to
NE Tennessee from northern Illinois, I only have a full-size delta loop for 80 meters and
put up a "temporary" inverted vee for 160. The inverted vee will be replaced by an
inverted L this summer and I also plan on installing bi-directional Beverages for the E-W,
NE-SW and NNW-SSE directions.

I have 'down-sized" my antenna installation considerably from what I had in Illinois. I
put up an 82' high guyed Rohn 55G tower and just above the top plate of the tower is
a CushCraft XM-240 (2-el. 40 meter monoband yagi) and 8' above that is a HyGain
204BA (4-el. 20 meter monoband yagi). I will be 68 years old this coming June and I am
all done with big antennas & big maintenance of them.

I wanted to have ONE GOOD ANTENNA for one day-time band (20 meters) and for
one night-time band (40 meters). Except for the challenge of 80 & 160 meters, I no
longer care about any of the other bands, since I have every country worked and
confirmed on multiple bands, with the exception of Scaffold Rocks -- I have that
one on 20 meters CW & SSB only.

Back in Illinois I had a home-built copy of a KLM 3-element 30 meter monoband
at 87' above ground, which I had built from 40 meter KLM yagi parts. With that
antenna and 100 watts, I managed a total of 327/324 on that band. Before moving
from Illinois, I kept noticing that there were fewer and fewer DX signals on that
that band. After coming to Tennessee, I threw up a delta loop for 30 meters and
found very little activity on that band - compared with years past.

I regularly TUNE the CW sub-bands and cannot recall any activity in "droves" on ANY
of the bands, from 20 meters through 160 meters. The other night before going to bed,
I checked out 40 meters, to see how much activity there was right before Europe's
sunrise. From 7.000 to 7.025 MHz., I counted a total of THREE DX stations! That was
with my monobander aimed at Europe...

I was first licensed in 1981 and began my DX'ing and contesting sojurn shortly after
that, mostly on CW. An old-timer friend of mine would keep me company on the
local DX spotting frequency and we would uncover country after country on 40 & 80
meters; countries that were not the "run-of-the-mill" DX - especially during contests.
Not any more! There is absolutely NO problem in finding an unused frequency now.

I don't know if it is because of FT8 or what. It is my guess that with the advent of
the internet, "smart phones," "Instant Messenger" and all the other internet-based
modes of communication, people just don't bother with ham radio. They have no
need of it - what with their ability to communicate with others around the world via
their smart phones and the internet.

It is not my intention in this post to "bad-mouth" FT8 or any other technology or
mode of communication. All I am saying is that ham radio is NOT what it used to
be. Speaking only for myself, I will NEVER use FT8 or any of the other "digital" or
computer / internet-based modes of communication. One MACHINE "talking"
to another machine is not my idea of communicating.

I guess that the latest "controversy" in ham radio is the advent of "remote"
operation. As far as I am concerned, my Illinois DX totals are my DXCC totals. I am
now in Tennessee and propagation and conditions are completely different from
what I experienced in northern Illinois. Consequently, I do not feel that it is
"ethical" to be adding to my DXCC totals. This is one of the reasons why I will
never make any more submissions to the ARRL for my DXCC totals.

One of these days, ham radio will be no more. Commercial users have had their
eyes on those frequencies for years and sooner or later, they will get them. In
the USA, money talks and they have a lot of money!

Thank you.

Brad Anbro, N9EN
Bluff City, Tennessee