[UK-CONTEST] Antenna for SSB field day

[David Honey]

At 14:54 10/08/2010, Alex GM3ZBE wrote:
>Chris, et al
>You reminded me of a question I've meant to ask for some time.  I.e. are
>you allowed to change aerials during the NFD contest?  Could I have more
>than one dipole and swop them as necessary during the contest.  Each
>antenna being a single element?  I'm talking about the restricted
>section of course.
>Alex 'ZBE


When Reading and District asked the contest committee about this some 
years back, we were advised that a fan dipole consisting of several 
dipoles all connected to a common feedpoint did meet the criteria and 
could be used in the restricted or lower power sections of field day 
contests. One of our stations has used such an arrangement for 
several years and an official inspection during the contest did not 
raise this as an issue. If the rules, or their interpretation has 
changed, I'd like to know for sure from someone on the contest 
committee as we might consider a fan dipole in the future.

We have often used a single dipole with banana plugs for band changes 
for CW NFD. Of course, you have to lower it to swap the plugs in and 
out, but at any one time, it's the same feedpoint and a single 
element dipole. There has never been a question about the legaility 
of doing that. On SSB FD where the ability to band change quickly to 
S&P on multipliers is important, we have used a doublet with an auto 
ATU on top of the mast directly at the feedpoint. That worked very 
well last year.

David, M0DHO