Topband: July Stew Perry Please!!!!
Dear OMs and Yls A July Stew Perry is an excellent idea!!!We need something to temp more onto the band during the noisy season. One tunes the band a number of times and hears nothing and so resorts to HF.A good effort in high summer for the northern latitudes might clear our ears. Even if our receive antennas were largely down, a contest might bring some of us out. A summer contest could also make the K9AY and magnetic loop antennas have more justification for their existence.A July Stew Perry would be a fair handshake to the southern hemisphere and their efforts during the warm months. Please bring it on 73 Doug EI2CN PS Yes a summer contest, well Top Band Operators like pain. ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Cushcraft MA-160
Dave, If you ground the top of the wire of a quarter-wave sloper to the tower and feed the bottom of the slant wire instead (assuming a ground rod and some radials laying on the ground at the feed point) you will IMHO do much better. Some matching may be required at the feed point but it may be no more than a series capacitor to remove the reactance of the wire. There my be a very slight bit of directivity in the direction of the slant wire, but the overall efficiency of this as a TB radiator may be significantly better even with a short tower of 50-60 feet. If the tower is more than 60 feet tall and with a beam on top I would suggest shunt feeding the tower with a cage feed again assuming you can have at least 4 or more radials on the ground even if you need to fold or bend the ends a bit to fit in your yard. All half slopers from metal towers do IMHO is try to backward excite the tower with RF. Losses can be high and performance is generally less than adequate. If you are able to shorten the slant wire to get your feed point closer to 50 ohms may also be beneficial and should also be considered. Good luck, Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ On 3/16/2012 10:57 PM, David Novoa, W4DN wrote: Has anyone in this reflector installed a Cushcraft MA-160 short vertical with a couple of elevated radials or the K2AV Folded Counterpoise? If so, results? Any recommendations? I need to do something before the TB season ends. My quarter-wave sloper doesn't work properly. Thanks, Dave, W4DN ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: July Stew Perry Please!!!!
I'll throw out a related suggestion. Why not use the IARU HF contest as the summertime 160 contest ? It's 24 hours long and has excellent worldwide activity on all bands except 160 meters. 73, Steve, N2IC On 03/17/2012 05:12 AM, Doug Turnbull wrote: Dear OMs and Yls A July Stew Perry is an excellent idea!!!We need something to temp more onto the band during the noisy season. One tunes the band a number of times and hears nothing and so resorts to HF.A good effort in high summer for the northern latitudes might clear our ears. Even if our receive antennas were largely down, a contest might bring some of us out. A summer contest could also make the K9AY and magnetic loop antennas have more justification for their existence.A July Stew Perry would be a fair handshake to the southern hemisphere and their efforts during the warm months. Please bring it on 73 Doug EI2CN PS Yes a summer contest, well Top Band Operators like pain. ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: July Stew Perry Please!!!!
Please no! Let the Stew be the Stew. It is the best and fairest TB contest ever devised by mankind. I wouldn't mind if we had one every month especially at the summer solstice, vernal and autumnal equinox when those in the southern hemisphere could have even more kick. Plus the IARU has those nonsense QTC's which would be totally inappropriate for TB DXing. Herb, KV4FZ On 3/17/2012 9:18 AM, Steve London wrote: I'll throw out a related suggestion. Why not use the IARU HF contest as the summertime 160 contest ? It's 24 hours long and has excellent worldwide activity on all bands except 160 meters. 73, Steve, N2IC On 03/17/2012 05:12 AM, Doug Turnbull wrote: Dear OMs and Yls A July Stew Perry is an excellent idea!!!We need something to temp more onto the band during the noisy season. One tunes the band a number of times and hears nothing and so resorts to HF.A good effort in high summer for the northern latitudes might clear our ears. Even if our receive antennas were largely down, a contest might bring some of us out. A summer contest could also make the K9AY and magnetic loop antennas have more justification for their existence.A July Stew Perry would be a fair handshake to the southern hemisphere and their efforts during the warm months. Please bring it on 73 Doug EI2CN PS Yes a summer contest, well Top Band Operators like pain. ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Topband: Summer Stew
We did have a Summer Stew last year on the weekend before the ARRL Field Day. So it shall be again this year. The updated Stew dates are now up on the web here: http://web.jzap.com/k7rat/stew.rules.txt 1. Contest period: 1500Z December 29th to 1500Z December 30th, 2012. Operate for a maximum of 14 hours. Off times are 30 minutes minimum and a maximum of four off periods are permitted. A separate warm-up event will be held on October 20/21 with the same time period and entry categories. A Summer event will be held on June 16/17 - again with the same time period and categories. Tree N6TR ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: July Stew Perry Please!!!!
On 3/17/2012 6:34 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote: Four 24 hour Stew's a year is a good deal, at the equinoxes and the soltices. While I LOVE the concept of the Stew, it seriously lacks critical mass, even in the main event in December. As a result, I always finding myself taking frequent breaks during the evening and going QRT from boredom by 1 am or so. It has seemed to me that adding the July and October runnings of the Stew are even more poorly attended, and have also served to dilute interest in the Dec event. While I'd love to see topband activity spread around the calendar, far more effort is needed to get more folks to participate. 73, Jim K9YC ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: July Stew Perry Please!!!!
I like the Stew, however, it typically falls at a time when I've traveled away from home for the holidays and don't have access to a station or am actually traveling during the Stew weekend. Bummer. This year, the timing was different enough to operate the event and condx turned out to be less than stellar from QTH. I would like more 160 events but I doubt my station would be able to work any DX in the summer months. tnx Mike On Mar 17, 2012, at 10:12 PM, Jim Brown j...@audiosystemsgroup.com wrote: On 3/17/2012 6:34 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote: Four 24 hour Stew's a year is a good deal, at the equinoxes and the soltices. While I LOVE the concept of the Stew, it seriously lacks critical mass, even in the main event in December. As a result, I always finding myself taking frequent breaks during the evening and going QRT from boredom by 1 am or so. It has seemed to me that adding the July and October runnings of the Stew are even more poorly attended, and have also served to dilute interest in the Dec event. While I'd love to see topband activity spread around the calendar, far more effort is needed to get more folks to participate. 73, Jim K9YC ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
