[TowerTalk] [CQ-Contest] Contest QTH, hilltop or seaside?

[Bill via TowerTalk]

I second Jim's thoughts.  I have used N6BV's HFTA at two  locations.  The 
first was at a VERY hilly/mountainous KH6 location and the  second was a 
relatively flat (compared to KH6) location here in FL.  I too,  swear by this 
program.
 
If I ever get set up in the Caribbean  on a nice hill, you can  bet I'll 
use the program again.
 
K4XS/KH7XS
 
 
In a message dated 1/4/2015 12:20:26 A.M. Coordinated Universal Time,  
k9yc at audiosystemsgroup.com writes:

On  Sat,1/3/2015 12:03 PM, Steve London wrote:
> If you are playing with  HFTA, I strongly urge you to do a sensitivity 
> analysis by changing  your datapoints, randomly, by 1 to 3 feet. Do 
> this on each band of  interest. If the results change significantly, 
> then HFTA is not a  valid model at your QTH.

I believe that's an incorrect conclusion,  Steve. N6BV, HFTA's author, 
recommends making multiple runs to rule out  the granularity issue that 
you noted. That is, he suggests modeling not at  single heights or 
azimuths, but at multiples of both. He advises that it  IS possible to 
have a condition that yields bogus results, but by doing  those multiple 
calcs, it's easy to weed them out.

For my QTH, which  is far more irregular than yours, I modeled in 5 
degree steps from 0 to 45  degrees, at 5 ft height increments. Knowing my 
terrain, he also  recommended going out something like 10 miles or more. 
Many of us out here  in the Bay area have used HFTA extensively, and 
swear by it. I know that  K6XX has, and so have I. My on-the-air 
experience with a SteppIR at 120 ft  and monobanders in the range of 
30-45 ft is in great agreement with the  models.

73, Jim  K9YC


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