[WriteLog] SO2R contesting question

[Don Hill AA5AU]

Ron et al,

I live on a small suburban type property.  I have a two Rohn 25 towers that
are attached to the house and only 20 feet apart at most.  I do SO2R RTTY
in just about every RTTY contest.  I think the biggest question is how many
antennas can you muster on the small property.

My towers are 55' and 60' and I use small Cushcraft A3S tribanders, one on
each tower.  The one on the 60' tower as the 40M add-on kit.  With two small
tribanders and an 80 meter wire (I have an 80M inverted vee off the taller tower)
you can do just fine.  My beams slightly overlap but with proper filtering and
the use of stubs you can do just well.  I prefer to operate Low Power in all contests
that offer such a class, but I can operate higher power (500w and 250w) in those
contests that do not offer low power, with minimal interference between radios.

Because of my antenna limitations, I have found a very good setup.  One radio
is dedicated to 15 & 40 meters and the other radio is dedicated to 10, 20 & 80
meters.  You can use one set of stubs for each radio to cover 10, 15, 20 & 40
meters.  I describe my setup on my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/aa5au/
Check out my SO2R RTTY pages.

With my limited space and small antennas I have set 3 world records using SO2R
on RTTY (1999 ARRL RTTY Roundup Low Power, 1999 NAQP RTTY and
2001 WPX RTTY Low Power).  I even won World Low Power Single Op in the
2000 CQWW RTTY contest.  So it can be done (on RTTY at least) with limited
space and antennas.  I've done SO3R several times, but believe I'm better with SO2R.

I've tried SO2R on CW and I found that once I got over my laziness, that it was
not that difficult.  It did give me great respect for those that do it regularly.

WriteLog makes SO2R operation much easier than anything we had before.  As
far as antennas go, I would stick with yagis or quads for the high bands.  At least
a rotatable dipole (such as the 40M add-on kit to the A3S) for 40 and anything
that you have room for on 80 (and 160).

Good luck!
73, Don AA5AU


> On 10 Jun 01, Ron Kenwood wrote:
> 
> > 
> > I have been envious of the folks who use Writelog to do SO2R contesting. I
> > have never pursued it because my assumption has been that it is not feasible
> > on a small suburban type property. If I assume top end radios, bandpass
> > filters, and antennas almost literally within arms reach of each other, is
> > my assumption correct? Since this is not really a Writelog issue, direct
> > replies would probably be appropriate. Thanks.
> > 
> > 73, Ron
> > W3ZV
> > rkenwood@erols.com
> > w3zv@arrl.net
> > 
> > 
> > --
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> > 
> 
> 
> --
> Barry Kutner, W2UP              Internet: w2up@mindspring.com
> Newtown, PA         FRC         alternate: barry@w2up.wells.com
> 
> --
> WWW:                      http://www.writelog.com/
> Submissions:              writelog@contesting.com
> Administrative requests:  writelog-REQUEST@contesting.com
> Problems:                 owner-writelog@contesting.com
> 



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