[TowerTalk] More Updates - W3CRA

[Bill Tippett]

         Excerpt to another update on my W3CRA webpage:

http://users.vnet.net/btippett/w3cra.htm

Thanks to Bob W8JYZ for an excellent summary of Frank's DX-ing activities 
(Part 1) and (Part 2) which were much more extensive than I had realized 
(e.g. First pre-WWII DXCC and one of the prime movers behind the DXCC 
award).  From the Part 2 article, I found the following comments 
particularly interesting.

"On top of the hill you could look towards Cleveland and view 6 or 8 Air
Craft Lighted Beacons spaced 30 or 40 miles. Best view southwest and west, 
worst
on Africa direct. He experimented setting up an antenna on top of the hill 
and ****it didn't
have the qualities that he had with the antenna system on the side of the 
hill.**** He
placed the system back in service on the side of the hill where it remains 
to this day."

Indeed, using a modern terrain modeling tool (HFTA), these results are 
verified.  Antennas on mountaintops often have their best performance at a 
relatively low height above the peak, which Frank also apparently 
discovered empirically, at least 50 years ago (maybe even 70)!

         Part 1 and Part 2 of W8JYZ's articles are in .pdf and
directly accessible here:

http://www.geocities.com/w8jyz/W3CRA.pdf

http://www.geocities.com/w8jyz/W3CRA_b.pdf

Excellent reading about a true legend in our hobby!

                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV