[TowerTalk] Help in planning a new QTH

[Tom McAlee]

Hi Peter.

>My goal in all this is not to create a contest super station, just
something that will hopefully vault me onto the Honor roll in reasonable
time and boost my country count on 80 considerably.

When it comes to either, what you need most is time.  Big antennas won't let
you work countries that aren't on the air.  When it comes to 80 meters, more
than anything else, it takes time and patience to work above the 160 to 170
country mark.  For all-band, I'd say once your much above 250 or 275 it is
mostly a matter of waiting for the countries to actually be on the air.
Obviously the better the antenna the better shot you have, but even the best
antenna won't get you on the honor roll in a year or two.

> I'd also like to have something that would give me a shot at the snaring
the ultra-difficult southern Indian Ocean islands (i.e. like Kerguelen and
Crozet, neither or which I even have a faint hope of hearing this time
'round).

I've only been active again since the fall of 2003.  But, I was active as a
teenager back in the 80's.  I worked (and confirmed) FT8XB, Kerguelen
Island, on 11/20/85 (I was 13 years old!) on 20m.  All of my activity back
then was with 100 watts into a vertical (and it was from Shelton, CT... not
too far from NYC or Norwalk, CT).  Don't rule it out!  Patience is key; even
massive antennas won't help if the propogation isn't there.  If the
propogation is there, 100w and a vertical can get the job done, especially
if you know your way through a pileup.

Between getting licensed in 1984 and when I basically went off the air when
I went to college in 1989 I worked around 270 countries, all with no more
than 100w and a dipole or vertical.  And, in terms of sunspots, those years
were similar to where we are now.

Better antennas are more important in contesting than it is in DXing because
the contesters "running" want to hear everyone running 5 watts into a
coathanger.  When it comes to DXing, there are pileup cracking skills one
can develop that I believe are actually far more important than what antenna
you have.  With those skills, one can get through any pileup.  Of course,
combining those skills with higher power and better antennas is even better;
then it becomes commonplace to work them on the first call.  But, that still
doesn't put you on the honor roll until the stations are there!

> I'd thought a 55 footer with a single SteppIR 4-element was the best way
to go,  but in chatting with another esteemed list-member, that thought was
essentially dismissed

I'm curious why.  I currently use a 4-element SteppIR and I love it.  I
don't have a 3-element to compare it to, but in comparing to a loop or
vertical I can tell you it makes S9 signals out of stations I wouldn't even
know were there on the vertical!

And, by the way, I worked FT5WJ (Crozet) just this morning on it :)  And,
going back to my previous paragraph, I worked him on my 2nd call.

I went with a SteppIR over one of the Force 12's because, from what I read
and heard, they don't have the best reputation for mechanical reliability.
And, having full coverage over each band instead of a compromise that favors
a particular segment of each band is great.

>From a post by Pete, N4ZR:

> I won't add to the noise level except to recommend that for budgeting, you
identify all the major components, total their cost and then double it.
Maybe you have a better mind for detail than I do, but that's almost exactly
how my project worked out

Good advice!  In my case it was almost triple though.  It's funny how those
things add up.

73,
Tom, NI1N