[VHFcontesting] Hilltopping 101

[Ken Alexander]

I probably spent as much of the UHF Contest driving
around looking for a good location to operate from as
I did operating.  Maybe it's no wonder, considering I
had no suitable coax cables until the night before,
and only half my antenna system when I woke up the day
of the contest, but that's just me.

Anyway, it's fairly hilly around here north of
Toronto.  Average terrain would be approximately 250
metres ASL, with most peaks at around 300 metres (985
ft ASL).  Some are as high as 400 metres but that one
is on a highway and has noisy powerlines running down
the side.

It got frustrating driving around, and after a while I
decided to head closer to home and operate from a nice
bald hill at 320 metres.  I reasoned that it wasn't
necessary to be perched at the top of the highest peak
in the area...being "above average terrain" was good
enough for what I was doing.  Any flaws in that
reasoning?  What should I be looking for as I scout
out potential rover sites in the next few weeks?

The other problem with most hills around here is that
they've covered in tall trees, which I've heard is no
good on UHF...but I'm wondering how much of a
difference trees and foliage really makes on 70cm,
which was where I was operating?

Thanks for any help.

73,

Ken Alexander, VE3HLS
www.ve3hls.com