Re: Topband: Am I the only one in step?

I’m impressed that you could hear the US SSB stations. I have never heard NZ on 160. > On Mar 1, 2016, at 9:30 AM, Greg - ZL3IX wrote: > > So far I have remained silent on this topic, although I do have a very strong > view, as follows. > > I can understand the need for

Re: Topband: Vertical Antenna on a cliff above the Sea

I have a small cabin and station on a mountain top. My experience is that horizontal antennas set right at a cliff face act as if they are much higher than their towers… to the point that real towers are pretty counter productive. Verticals act as if they are elevated 400 feet in the air (which

Re: Topband: Why do rodents eat coax?

I had a pack rat problem, eating into cables and have completely cured the issue by running coax inside the inexpensive black tubing made for underground sprinkler systems. It comes in 100 and 500 foot rolls. To get the coax into the tubes cut the length you want… then either push an

Re: Topband: CQWW160 Remote receiver rule

As the ham population ages historically many people have been forced to go off air when they move to retirement communities, assisted living situations etc. Let’s not also forget what remote stations can do for these folks. To operate my remote station would cost someone about $200 in

Re: Topband: New RF interference killing RX at my QTH

Be careful. It could be grow lights from an illegal pot operation. On Nov 10, 2014, at 6:41 PM, Goldtr8 (KD8NNU) gold...@charter.net wrote: Well I made some progress tonight on the way home. I used my mobile rig with hamsticks to listen while driving on the way home from work. I tuned

Re: Topband: Outdoor rope suggestions

If you don’t mind the cost and want the best, Harken marine blocks. On Sep 2, 2014, at 1:14 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist rich...@karlquist.com wrote: On 9/2/2014 10:06 AM, Jim Brown wrote: I'm supporting high dipoles fed by RG11 up 120 ft with the 5/16-in stuff that DX Eng sells. They are

Re: Topband: Rig Question

The K3’s (I have 2) come sounding pretty bad on SSB. But there are some standard settings for the equalizer which get them sounding pretty good. I’m not sure why they don’t leave the factory that way. All in all I find the K3s unbeatable for CW and on a par with other good rigs on SSB.

Re: Topband: Using 80m 1/4 vertical on 160

I have the zero five 55 foot antenna which was custom built to actually be a full sized 80 meter antenna. It was affordable and has stood up well on a very windy mountain top. Performance is, of course, no different than a 65 foot wire…. if you had trees to support the latter. On Jun 3,

Re: Topband: Suggestions for a tower?

Or an easy and fairly good approach is to set up a sloper off the tower. The sloper acts as an inverted vertical ( inverted verticals work better than ground fed ones) and uses the grounded tower as its ground. Basically you run your feed line to the top of the tower, run the hot core to a wire

Re: Topband: AM broadcast tower and 160m dxpedition

I would be especially mindful of corrosion issues in tower planning in the Caribbean. There was a recent article in the Contest Journal on the ever difficult tower corrosion experienced at PJ2T. On Feb 25, 2014, at 1:17 PM, DALE LONG dale.l...@prodigy.net wrote: Gentlemen: I have been

Re: Topband: AM broadcast tower and 160m dxpedition

, Charlie Cunningham charlie-cunning...@nc.rr.com wrote: Good point! -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ashton Lee Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 4:03 PM To: DALE LONG Cc: topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: AM

Re: Topband: Ends for older Phillystran

We sailors would wrap a line twice around the eye and then leave a longer tail and clamp that with some space between each clamp. The increased friction of 2 wraps around an eye/block/winch substantially reduces the pull on a knot, cleats or (in this case) clamps. It could be that the

Re: Topband: Ends for older Phillystran

As a very crude analogy what you want to be able to do is use a steel cable from the anchor through the middle of something like an automobile wheel, Then the Phillystran wants to take a couple of lazy turns around the rim of the wheel and then get clamped to itself. While there are probably

Re: Topband: ARRL 160 contest observation

Come out to Colorado and you won’t have the problem of mass European pile ups. On Dec 11, 2013, at 8:03 AM, Shoppa, Tim tsho...@wmata.com wrote: I spent almost all of the second night of the ARRL 160 test, just running, little to no SP. This probably shows up in my final score as a high QSO

Re: Topband: ARRL 160 contest observation

Jim I note from QRZ that you have 133 countries contacted on 160… and yet you haven’t heard Europe in 2 years. Kinda puts into perspective what 160 is like for those of us in the West these days. KQ0C Ash On Dec 11, 2013, at 10:28 AM, Jim Brown j...@audiosystemsgroup.com wrote: On

Re: Topband: DX Window

The issue I believe is that many people’s 160 antennas are limited in frequency breadth. There is really just one SSB contest. On Dec 9, 2013, at 7:55 AM, Roger Parsons ve...@yahoo.com wrote: I agree with the remarks made by others regarding the DX window in the ARRL contest. I have

Re: Topband: Antenna Question

The 43 foot antennas are very short (low inductance, poor efficiency) on 160. Only my very best tuners will tune them… and tuning doesn’t make them efficient, it only makes them not destroy the radio with reflected currents. The best solution is to top load a 43 food antenna and turn it into an

Re: Topband: Easy-to-learn 160 contest logging program?

I was able to install N1MM the day I received my General and play around in the California QSO Party… can’t be that hard if I managed it on day one. Years later I am still finding additional features however. But getting it to connect to the radio and log contacts is as easy as any other

Re: Topband: Coax rodent protection

All my coax needs to be protected from pack rats… I use inexpensive rolls of underground sprinkler “pipe” as the covering. Works FB. On Nov 12, 2013, at 2:28 PM, Dave Harmon k6...@sbcglobal.net wrote: After getting my coax chawed 3 times I used chain link fence top rail as conduit. If

Re: Topband: Magnetic Loops

I have the Wellbrook at 2 QTHs and it works way better than using a transmit antenna on receive. It also works very well early in the evening when signals are still iffy and coming in at all angles. My 300 foot beverage on ground starts to be quieter and therefore more effective later in the

Re: Topband: A little assistance needed with an attempt at a T antenna

I don't believe that the off center top loading will have a huge effect if you feed it as a T, vs a symmetric T Theory would say that a ground fed T against even 3-4 radials will have a lower DX angle. The price you pay is the ground losses of a vertical (not due to the modest ground radial

Re: Topband: Short Bogs

My BOG was a breakthrough after previously using just my inverted L on receive. Its 300 feet fed through a 300 Ohm transformer. The transformer is grounded, but not the far end. In the last week I added a Wellbrook loop which earned its place as my primary receive antenna in the Stew Perry

Re: Topband: ARRL LOTW and More

Let's not lose the fact that contests on 160 are events as much as contests… they are times when an otherwise barren band fills up. There's a lot of fun just in working all you can. Those of us in deep valleys in Western Colorado have a hard time appreciating the extreme difficulties faced by

Re: Topband: GAP Vertical Question

What I can add from personal experience is that a vertical dipole (center fed half wave) without radials, on a rocky cliff top is an absolute killer antenna on the upper HF bands. My vertical dipole works so well that in contests I often just quit using my yagis because of the hassle of

Re: Topband: Fw: GAP VERTICAL QUESTION

So here's a question. I have a vertical mounted on a cliff side that performs incredibly. My amateur's approach to figuring out why is that I modeled it in EZNEC as being elevated 400 feet. That shows it performing nearly as well as if it were on a tiny island in the great ocean. Is it correct

Re: Topband: Fw: GAP VERTICAL QUESTION

This wonderful article written by L.B.Cebic W4RNL sure can make you a believer in a simple wire inverted L. It is the last antenna discussed. http://www.users.on.net/~bcr/files/backyard%20wire%20antennaes.pdf A $3 wire pulled up into a tree will beat just about any commercial antenna… because

Re: Topband: Fw: GAP VERTICAL QUESTION

On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 2:07 PM, Ashton Lee ashton.r@hotmail.com wrote: This wonderful article written by L.B.Cebic W4RNL sure can make you a believer in a simple wire inverted L. It is the last antenna discussed. http://www.users.on.net/~bcr/files/backyard%20wire%20antennaes.pdf A $3 wire

Re: Topband: GAP VERTICAL QUESTION

I don't know about the Gaps, but a 43' vertical fed through a 4:1 unun works very well for me on 40-10 meters on a remote hilltop. On 80 and 160 I simply top load it with a long wire. When not in use the wire can either be wrapped around the antenna, or in the summers, removed. Yes there is

Topband: Top Loading a 43 footer

I do this with great success. Just put the longest wire you can (up to 85 feet) and run it as horizontal as you can. I assume you already load your antenna through an unun, So shorter than 85 feet will work as long as it is longer than say 43 feet. Attach it with a hose clamp, but perhaps shy

Topband: Beverage on Ground

No, I didn't spill my beer. But I am having very good experience with the roughly 300 foot Beverage on Ground that I just put in at my house. It is fed through a 300 ohm transformer and runs in the only direction where I can get a 300 foot run. It is made of insulated #14 wire and

Re: Topband: Inverted L SWR Jumps ???

Ok, everyone thanks for all the help. I rebuilt the antenna from new wire, built a two insulator termination at the end of the horizontal section where the high voltage is, I rehung the new antenna so that it doesn't touch anything… and the problem persisted. I then looked into Tom W8JI's

Topband: Inverted L SWR Jumps ???

So I am trying to get set up better on 160 meters. I now have two antennas up (pretty well separated). One is an Alpha Delta DX A sloper hung in a tree with a grounding wire led to a ground rod and small radial field. The other is an inverted L on a good radial system of about 2000 feet in