Topband: 8Q7WM Z-22 in VE6

[John Kaufmann]

I have a low dipole, about 10 feet high, that I use as an alternate receiving antenna on 160.  My main receiving antenna is an 8-circle array of short verticals.  The vertical array is almost always much better for DX, but once in a while the low dipole is better, sometimes dramatically so.  The situations that favor the dipole are always the same:  it's at my sunrise and for a period of time (15-20 minutes in duration) after sunrise.  If there is any DX propagation at all, it usually fades rapidly right at sunrise when listening on the verticals.  However, once in a while the DX comes up on the dipole as it drops down on the verticals.  It has allowed me to work DX (VK, ZL, JA) after sunrise that would otherwise be very difficult or impossible to hear on the verticals.

I guess the old adage still holds...you can never have too many antennas on 160 (as long as they don't interact destructively with each other).

73, John W1FV

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces+john.kaufmann=verizon.net at contesting.com] On Behalf Of VE6WZ_Steve
Sent: Tuesday, March 1, 2022 11:01 AM
To: Robin
Cc: Topband
Subject: Re: Topband: 8Q7WM Z-22 in VE6

Hi Robin…

No I did not RX on anything but the Beverages and 9 C.
However….who knows? Perhaps they might have been better if I had.

This morning Kevin VK6LW was crazy strong, but it seems the 8Q7 boys diid not show up.
Let's hope they keep trying that path before they leave.

73, de steve ve6wz

> On Feb 28, 2022, at 10:56 PM, Robin <wa6cdr at cq160.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Steve
> 
> Did you try a high angle receive antenna?  Not so sure on this end, but when we were working skew paths from XZ0A we simply had to have a cloud warmer receive antenna in order to hear anything until a couple hours after local dark. Went several days of near nothing until we put up a dipole at 15 feet, then made something like 30 eastern NA Qs the first night we had that antenna.
> 
> Almost all of the skew contacts we made were reported as arriving from 210-240 for NA east of the Midwest..
> 
> This was during a solar high when the polar oval was strong, so nothing was making it through that area.
> 
> This condition was consistent for several weeks - all the time we were there.
> 
> Quiet environment, diesel powered island hotel, several miles across water to the typical noisy Asian town, and a lot of miles to a big city.
> 
> TX antenna was a full size quarter wave groundplane.  (180 ft antenna fed at 50 ft with dozen radials), so it probably did have a modest high angle signal - a big fat main lobe.
> 
> to this day we have no idea if the RX arrival angle matched the TX departure angle.  The low dipole was not TX grade.
> 
> Robin, WA6CDR
> XZ0A
> 
> 
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