[TowerTalk] Wire Antennas Only For Field Day

[jimlux]

On 7/7/17 10:58 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> The biggest "unlevel playing field" issue with Field Day
> is the location.  FD gives the station builder an opportunity
> to choose an unreal location.  I remember one year I placed
> second in my category, but the number one station totally
> blew me away with 3 times the number of points.  I asked
> him about this, and it turns out that he operated from a
> mountain TOP (the very TOP, not just up the mountain somewhere).
> He was just unbeatable from this location.  He was also
> a great operator to boot, but he said the location was the
> real key.
>

Very much so...

JPL and Caltech used to go up to the top of Pacifico Mountain (about 
7100 ft), where there is a big flat spot from a former Nike missile 
site,with a fairly nice road up, and it falls off on all sides 
substantially.

Not only is it electrically quiet being miles from civilization, but the 
topography helps a LOT when you're looking for low angle propagation.