Re: Topband: Where is everyone?

[william radice]

 Reading this got me to thinking. I'm one of those "contestors" that 
seem generally despised, especially on 80 and 160 meters. I maintain a 
fairly decent station and listen as often as I can, especially on 160. . 
My experience during contesting, and this is over 40 years on the band, 
has been poor to say the least. There is no welcome mat for the likes of 
me. I do my best to operate with a clean signal, and always avoid 
interfering with others. Contesting is not that frequent on 160 so 
should certainly not be an inconvenience to others.

Instead of being happy that the band is occasionally jumping with new 
signals from places not normally heard, we are scorned. I have often 
been working a contest, sitting on a frequency for hours, working 
hundreds of stations, then suddenly been told to get off this frequency 
because "me and my friend meet here all the time". I will generally move 
up or down to accommodate this unreasonable character only to be told to 
move further because this guy has no idea that using his noise blanker 
in the presence of a strong signal (mine) will cause distortion in his 
receiver. I've even been jammed when I try to hear an answer to my CQ.  
I move, and they follow me, sometimes keeping it up for hours. 160 is a 
very large band with lots of room for everyone, but never have I 
encountered such hostility from so called "regulars'. This occurs 
primarily on phone, but I've overheard complaints of CW contest activity 
even though few old timers ever operate down there or use CW at all.

My point is that I find it ironic to see hams complaining about poor 
activity, then giving zero welcome to a few nights of amazing activity 
from contestors who provide lots of activity, the opportunity to work 
stations in areas you might never hear, a great chance to see how your 
station is performing, and the incentive for new hams to join the fun on 
Topband. Consider this when you get on the band and hear a contest and 
resent the activity.

Oh, by the way, I'm an old fart, licensed 62 years now and active every 
single day for the whole time. In the last 10 years alone I have made 
over 7,000 Qsos with stations in 300 countries, just since I moved to 
TN. Before that, three times that number! If you hear me on 160, give me 
a callalways happy to meet a new friend.

Oh, you will hear lots of stations this weekend down on CW. It's the 
Stew Perry Topband challenge.  http://www.kkn.net/stew/
Try to be patient. Maybe even call a few:-)

BILL K4OWR




>> Here it is Friday  night, with relatively little QRN, but only a couple of
>> signals are audible across the entire 160m band.  80/75m has a few more
>> signals than that, but it's sparsely occupied as well.  Usually by this
>> late in the season one will hear plenty of activity in the evening,
>> especially on weekends.  I have noticed this dearth of activity for several
>> weeks now; it's as if this year's radio season hasn't got off the ground
>> yet, despite the fact that we are almost midway through autumn and the
>> summer QRN has substantially subsided.
>>
>> Is this a trend, and is this becoming the new normal?  They keep telling
>> us we now have a record number of hams in the FCC data base, over 700,000.
>> Those hams certainly aren't on the air, at least not on 160, 80 or 40m.  I
>> can  remember not that many years ago when at this stage in the season on a
>> quiet weekend night one had to scout around to find a clear spot to call
>> CQ.  So far this year, the bands have all had vast swathes of unused
>> frequencies, but the signals that are heard appear to be at normal
>> strength, so the  bands apparently aren't dead.
>>
>> Don k4kyv
>> _
>> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
>>
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Re: Topband: The band sans noise

[william radice]

 I have an antenna of very similar design and performance. It is an 
all aluminum lawn chair on a pole.
BILL

On 4/22/2016 1:42 PM, Rob Atkinson wrote:
> Throw bricks all you want to the end of time but you'll never change
> the fact that we tested that antenna and saw its performance first
> hand; The preamp was designed by Jack Smith at CliftonLabs..I'm sure
> he'll enjoy reading your comments and get a good laugh.
>
> 73
>
> Rob
> K5UJ
>
> On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 11:26 AM, JC  wrote:
>> SORRY am not getting into this PR..   PIXEL loop is a low RDF and LOW
>> performance receiving antenna, it is really snake oil.
>>
>> I'm out of this discussion.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> JC
>>
>>
>> In tests, the Pixel magnetic loop provided at least 20 dB null off the
>> sides.  From my experience, that is much better "filtering" than what
>> would be had with a horizontal loop.   Of course it isn't all in the
>> antenna itself--a great deal of the success comes from the special preamp
>> designed for use with the antenna.
>> <<<
>> _
>> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
>>
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Re: Topband: 470 non carbon resistor

[william radice]

 A carbon resistor is what you need, NOT a non-carbon.
You can get them here...among other places. Not real hard to find
http://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dxe-ecm-r470-2
BILL

On 4/13/2016 9:29 AM, K3RAG LB3RE Brobakken wrote:
>
> Hello
>
> Where do you buy stuff for beverage like 470 ohm non carb resistor for 
> terminating and cores for 9:1 in US ?
>
>
> 73s Rag
> Stein-Roar LB3RE
> _
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Re: Topband: VOA antenna farm

[william radice]

 OMG, this is so sad I almost cried:'( :'(
BILL K4OWR

On 4/8/2016 9:30 AM, Katz Ajamas wrote:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcsbny8PFZw
> _
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Re: Topband: K1FZ ground rod difficulty

[william radice]

 At the risk of opening an avalanche of comments...
Here's what I use. You can use it in a relatively shallow hole and it 
works very well. This materiel is used by utility companies at the base 
of power poles.

Here's the info on it: https://www.erico.com/category.asp?category=R2387
And here's a video of how to use it: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHtIYboE8NE

I can only dig about 3 feet into my soil before hitting a solid rock 
shelf...acres and acres of my property are like this and I have had 
great results with this stuff!
BILL K4OWR

On 4/6/2016 11:04 AM, K1FZ-Bruce wrote:
> To be successful on 160 meters a ham should to be inventive.
> Like, if you can not drive a ground rod in due to local problems 
> (rocks, neighbors, whatever)
>   How about getting a truckload of added soil to bury the rod. Then 
> plant flowers on the mound to make it a show piece?  ( ; >))
>   73
> Bruce-K1FZ
> _
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Re: Topband: Post contest season: TX antenna vs RX antenna cros-stalk. What do you do?

[william radice]

 Serious multi-op contest stations face this issue all the time. 
Most use individual band filters and they almost completely eliminate 
the issue.
At our station we used the Dunestar filters for operating positions on 
different bands. As for 160 I personally use the KD9SV "front end saver" 
and it does the job completely.
BILL K4OWR

On 3/22/2016 5:44 AM, Mark van Wijk wrote:
> Now that we are  'sort of in post contest season mode' and sharing some good
> ideas, there is another question:
>
> During recent Field-day setups I noticed severe cross-talk issues between TX
> antennas and the separate RX antenna circuits.
> For sure any TX/R relay circuitry offers roughly 50-65 dB dampening. So, 
> during
> a contest with >S9+30 signals received on the large TX antennas (Deltaloop for
> 40m and 80m) these would still show up S1 - S4 on the FD station's K3 RX 
> input.
> At home I normally de-tune my backyard TX antenna(switch to GND during RX) to
> avoid noise pickup at the RX antennas, so I never noticed this.
>
>
> Question 1: how do you manage the TX-RX cross-talk at your setup?
>
> - switch TX antenna to GND during RX
> - switch-in en external attenuator, so the cross-talk is below noise level, 
> but
> you are still able to use the TX antenna during RX
> - any other solution?
>
>
> Question 2: is there any other basic circuitry or setup in a basic contest
> station which offer possible similar negative side effects?
>
>
>
> 73, Mark PA5MW
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Re: Topband: Stew,

[william radice]

 Heard you loud and clear here in Tennessee but you were answering 
another station who refused to let me give you a quick call. I quickly 
called cq above and below the frequency but could not attract you 
attentionmaybe next time! It was the first time I have ever hear VK 
on top band and it was great.
BILL K4OWR

On 3/13/2016 10:22 PM, Steve Adler wrote:
Top Band was alive down here in VK!  Good to work a few of you at good 
signal strengths last night. (12:00Z).  I have noticed the band is open 
to NA from VK around this time.  Please keep an ear out for your 
antipodean Brethren!

73 Steve VK5 SFA
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Topband: Stew

[william radice]

 Spent a total of 4 hours in the SP. Activity, at least from here in 
east TN, was lower than previous. The logger got to the point where it 
said "dupe, dupe, dupe"constantly.
DX would just appear out of nowhere...Italy, Germany, Venezuela.
  This morning I caught a VK6 working a K1 and tried to tail end. The 
guy would not give up the Fx for a second to let me work the DX. I sent 
AH, and he sent ?, I sent AH, and he sent ? Guess he didn't get it. I 
was dialed up to 2kw at that moment so I know he heard me, but he was 
not going to standby. The "gentleman's band" huh?
BILL K4OWR
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Re: Topband: test?

[william radice]

 Thank you all. I had been registered before by another email address, but 
mysteriously could not get anything posted. I have re-registered by this email 
and it now seems to be working. CU all in tomorrow's Stew Perry :-)
BILL K4OWR

On 3/11/2016 4:28 PM, k...@mchsi.com<mailto:k...@mchsi.com> wrote:
yes it is

- Original Message -
From: william radice <k4...@outlook.com><mailto:k4...@outlook.com>
To: topband@contesting.com<mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Sent: Fri, 11 Mar 2016 15:50:49 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Topband: test?

is this thing on?
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Topband: test?

[william radice]

is this thing on?
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