[TowerTalk] Interaction

[john at kk9a.com]

I think the biggest problem is the antenna was much too low and it was 
picking up the local noise more than the DX signal.


To: Mike Bragassa <bragassa at consolidated.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Interaction
From: Tom Anderson <andersonww5l at sbcglobal.net>
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:00:27 -0800 (PST)
List-post: <mailto:towertalk at contesting.com>

Mike:

Tnx.  kept missing some stations on 40/80 that were in
the nulls of the dipole.

It reminds me of a situation years ago in the early
1990s when VP8SSI South Sandwich was activated.  I had
worked them on 20m when they first came on, but my XYL
hadn't worked them yet.  It was the last night of the
DXpedition and they were shutting down in a few hours.

To complicate matters we were in the midst of moving
from one QTH to another and the shack was the last
room in the old house I had scheduled to be
disassembled, at least not until my XYL had worked
VP8SSI.

So my XYL Cheryl (WY5H) and I went over each night
around 0600Z or so to try them on 40 or 80.

Not thinking I had worked them fine on 20m with a beam
no problem since I knew the leader Tony WA4JQS fairly
well, but Cheryl was busy taking kids back and forth
to school, etc. and could only get on the radio at
night.

Anyway we were over there on the last night and I
didn't think at the time that VP8SSI was actually in
the nulls of our 40/80 inverted vee at 40 feet.
Cheryl could just barely hear VP8SSI so she kept
calling them, not sure if they had heard her.

Finally on the DX cluster about 3 a.m. CST (0900Z)one
station posted a message if VP8SSI was being heard in
North Texas, and we quickly posted a msg where they
were and where they were listening.  Ok, this station
came back about 30 seconds later and said he had just
worked them phone no problem.  Well I sent him a
message that we were having trouble hearing a
confirmation of Cheryl's 2x2 report to VP8SSI.  A
couple minutes later he came back and said for her to
quit calling and giving her report, she was in the log
5 or six times hi hi. She did get a card by the way.
Cheryl thought they had confirmed her, but with the
QRN, etc. it was difficult at best to get a
confirmation back.

So much for being in the nulls of a dipole.

73 de Tom, WW5L