[VHFcontesting] A question of altitude

[Nate Duehr]

Bill Olson wrote:
> In real life, at K1WHS, I seem to remember having problem working rovers with low antennas (7-10ft) on 6M, and they nearly always had a drop off in front of them.. I guess what I'm saying is, over a, say, 200 mile path, with the same rover, there didn't seem to be much difference if he was on flat ground or overlooking a cliff.. the signal was still a lot weaker than we thought it should be.. I guess we really need some testing here.. Guess I'll do that in June and report back...
> 
> bill, K1DY

Anecdotally, my dual W0KVA home-brew 6m square loops, one at 6' and one 
at 12' -- fed with a power divider -- have produced some of the best 6m 
contacts I've ever worked, even compared to many high towered 6m 
beams... both during contests and casually.

No time to model it... it "just works" and I'm not changing it unless 
someone proves to me that something else would work a LOT better.  :-)

And of course, when the band is open... it's just open... it doesn't 
matter much.  I've got FM01, 02, and 03 from DN70, DM79, DM78, etc...

FM01/02/03 was NO problem -- when the double-hop E-skip was in here in 
2006.  2007... nada.

Most often, if the band's not up... the first stuff to come in is Texas 
(thunderstorm lines from the Rockies to the Gulf -- tropo) and the Gulf 
states, and California going the other way, usually San Diego.

If the band opens some more, the midwest becomes "easy" and often 
Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho (if there were anyone 
there to work) and then down into Baja and most of Southern Canada and 
Mexico.

If aurora comes up... point north from here and enjoy working the entire 
northern U.S. and Canada.

In other words... for a Rover, having a "feel" for what 6m openings are 
happening and learning a bit about how to listen for callsigns, usually 
tells a better tale about what you'll be able to work, than the height 
of even modest 6m antennas... if the band's up... it's up.  Just kinda 
how 6m seems to go.

Nate WY0X