[TowerTalk] Feeding single band HF yagis 500+ ft from the shack

[Jim Brown]

On 5/18/2022 12:19 PM, Wes wrote:
> The future of DXpeditions  FT8 and 
> https://ncdxc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IDXC2021-15May-07-RIB.pdf

AA7JV is one our smartest and most forward-thinking hams. He presented 
this work at Visalia and Dayton in 2019; he also presented his work on 
simultaneously running CW and FT8 on 160M, based on his experience that 
all the action on that band tended to occur on one or two nights of a 
two-week stay. This made the two best weak-signal modes operational.

I heard both talks at Visalia. Both are GREAT systems engineering. 
Consider the RF network designs to accomplish the latter. When he 
presented both concepts in 2019, he had already done the latter on a 
DXpedition, and had implemented RIB on an island in the Bahamas!

> Or as I would put it, DXing RIP.

Huh? DXing is NOT 20 old, overweight guys hiring an expensive boat for 
several months, dragging all the stuff it takes to feed them, camping 
out on a remote island, climbing up cliffs, landing through tough 
conditions. What George has invented here is REAL ham radio. George has 
done at least a half dozen activations of remote islands with old friend 
from HA, several times sailing his own boat, almost always with 
innovative engineering. RIB is yet another. A decade or so ago, George 
used only DC-powered amplifiers run from batteries float-charged from, 
small Honda generators running in economode. This great reduced the 
quantity of petrol that had to be transported to the island.

One of the challenges that RIB solves is greatly increasing the 
likelihood of getting permission to operate on islands, where access is 
strongly limited for reasons that range from environmental protection to 
political. RIB is FAR less invasive, FAR less threatening.

Another is the COST of a few guys that live on the boat, the size of the 
boat, which have driven the cost of expeditions to the stratosphere. 
Some recent trips have been more than a few hundreds of dollars, and 
some of those have failed!

73, Jim K9YC