Re: Topband: Best small space antennas
Jim, in my oppinion the Hi-Z 3el. vertical array with 50' spacing is the best solution but the commercial one is very expensive I guess. Try to think about the home made system... 73 - Petr, OK1RP On Sun, 4 Dec 2011 19:18:02 -0600, Jim Miller Waco Texas WB5OXQ wb5ox...@grandecom.net said: With limited space what is the best antenna for 160? The only room available is a 130X50' area. Ground radials will be nearly impossable to put in large enough to be of much value. 1/4 wave antenna tried, very narrowband and interfeared with every receiving device in a block. I may just be out of luck. wb5oxq ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: The Stew !!
I am happy to support the contest and sponsor your award. I also would like to thank K7RAT for running the contest and to W0UCE for the plaque that I won, Top Score with Single Wire Antenna. Unfortunately, the recent storms here in the northeast (Hurricane Irene and the October blizzard) have destroyed my wire. I haven't had the opportunity to repair it this fall, so I do not think I will be able to operate the Stew this year. I did a M/S at K0TV for the ARRL 160 contest this past weekend. I enjoy the TBDC and hope to have the wire back up soon, maybe I will find a new QTH and will be able to put up more than one wire!! 73 Ed, K1EP At 12/6/2011 02:23 AM, F8BPN wrote: Hi All! Thanks to K7RAT gang, got my beautiful plaque last friday! And thanks to K1EP to support the Top score YL op Hope I am not alone in this categorie... See you in the 2011 edition! 73/88 de F8BPN, Mau f8...@wanadoo.fr http://ph-martin.pagesperso-orange.fr/f8bpn/index.htm ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Amazing night
Here in Virginia there were quite a few true S9+ signals in the early evening and then deep QSB on similar signals from Europe as their sunrise approached. Interesting conditions. Too bad they couldn't have come a couple of days earlier. 73, Ken - K4XL On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 4:19 AM, DL4UNY - Andre cont...@dl4uny.de wrote: Yep, last night was amazing - I also got amazing reports from JA and North America, but condx was weird because for example JA5NPV and VU2PAI called me with strong signals and from SU9 I was not able to get a single dot, even on the 600ft Africa Beverage. But last night was really amazing how was it on the other side of the globe (means NA/SA, Asia)? 73 de Andre, DL4UNY On 12/05/2011 11:39 PM, Josep Torres wrote: Hi all, after long time out of the BAND, I returned today with great success..! No RX antennas yet because my K9AY is still down, but managed to work a nice bunch of JAs, some of them with nice signals..! Expected bad condx due to high numbers and good high bands openings, but 160 tonight was incredible..!! Finally, 35 JAs, 2 BYs and 1 HL in the bag. 73, Josep EA6BF Sent from my iPad ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK -- *check out www.dl4uny.de http://www.dl4uny.de* ~ /73 de Andre, DL4UNY/ ~ ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK -- Ken - K4XL BoatAnchor Manual Archive BAMA - http://bama.edebris.com ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: ZeroBeat? excellent online tone pitch test
Sam, Neet little test, I tool it when drinking my morning coffee.. Results: @ 500hz I can reliably differentiate two tones 0.4875 Hz apart. I suppose that's pretty good...I should take the test after listening to static for 10 hours hihi. -Steve Raas N2JDQ On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 8:48 PM, Sam Morgan k5oai@gmail.com wrote: If you are interested in testing your ability to differentiate between a couple of tones take this test: http://tonometric.com/adaptivepitch/ -- GB 73 K5OAI Sam Morgan ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: An observation about Topband contesting technique
I'm also sure that you cannot equate signal strength between stations in the same general vicinity. I've heard and worked stations that others in the area couldn't, and vice-versa. Not an unusual phenomenon at all. I listened to a couple big guns in the area during ARRL160, and they sometimes struggled to copy stations that were solid Q5 here. Just part of the Magic. Paul, K5AF In a message dated 12/6/2011 9:06:28 A.M. Central Standard Time, tsho...@wmata.com writes: These stations aren't crocodiles - many are in the super station category and definitely have the ears to hear me. This seems to be a matter of operating technique, not technology. [...] Last night I worked 19 of the 26 stations I called on the east coast. The others should have been hearing me just as well. I seriously doubt it was their ears were the problem as they were all big stations. Just a heads up on what was going on, on this side of the pond: Conditions from East Coast US (Maryland) to West Coast US were very unoptimal. Those west coast multipliers are very valuable and there's a bunch of them that were a struggle to get from the east coast. I am sure many of the big guns who were calling but didn't hear you, had their receive antenna pointed towards the West Coast of the US. I know for example that I tried to work N8OO on multiple occasions but he couldn't hear me at all. I'm quite certain (from the stations he was working) he had a very effective receive antenna pointed squarely towards California. Tim N3QE Maryland ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Topband: 2011 CQWW 160 Results Article / December Issue CQ Arrived Today
Enjoy the big score listings while you can! 73, Jeff K8ND ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Topband: W2BC (W2RU, opr.) ARRL 160 SO HP
W2BC (W2RU, operator) 2011 ARRL 160 Contest SO HP Not content with the havoc he wreaked on CQ WW CW weekend, Murphy made a return visit for the ARRL 160 Contest. Memo to self: Never schedule an out-of-town meeting on the Friday of a contest weekend! On the way back from my Friday noon meeting some three hours away from the shack, my car started overheating. Fortunately, I was able to get to a dealership en route before their service department closed. UNfortunately, the detour and actual repair time cost me the first TWO hours of the contest (as well as a big dent in my wallet)! That's probably no big deal on the left coast, but it's a major disaster here in the east because it's already dark before the start time and many of those lost contacts are never going to be regained. When I first got on at Z Saturday, there seemed to be lots of holes in band usage. That turned out to be one of the symptoms of the unusual Friday night conditions, described by many previous posters. Nonetheless, I plowed ahead, working what I could. I had some good runs, but my long day Friday finally caught up with me, and I hit the sack at 0515Z, long before I should have. At that point, I had only TWO W6 Sections (SV and EB) in the log! Of course, I expect we'll find that the horrendous winds last week were a major contributor to the absence of many of the CA regulars. I had expected to enjoy the much-publicized ability of the east coast to Run European contacts and multipliers, but I was sorely disappointed. I think I worked a grand total of eight DX stations Friday night before going to bed. Things were somewhat better Saturday night. As others have reported, conditions gradually improved Saturday evening and early Sunday morning. Around 0700Z I worked nine DJs and a smattering of other EU multipliers near their sunrise. After a few hours of sleep, the usual Sunday late morning pop, where I work every VE3 ever licensed, never materialized. For all intents and purposes, the contest had ended BEFORE I went to sleep! I had hoped to do a lot better but, based on other people's reports, I'm generally OK with my results. My best (and last) Section was Alaska, as I came across a pile-up on a very, very weak NL7Z Sunday morning while SPing my way up the band one last time. When I gave up (the sun was too high in the sky) and pulled the big switch, I had missed PR, VI, NT, and, get this...San Diego! A couple of other interesting statistics: # of MN stations worked: 63 ! # of Dupes: 43 !!! (One station insisted on working me FOUR times — in the space of about two hours!) (But to be fair, I also CAUSED about 10 of those dupes, as some of you will attest to. My apologies.) QSOs: 1081 (after dupes) Sections: 76 Countries: 31 or 35 (see below) Score: somewhere between 252,841 and 262,293 Time: 15 hours The reason for the range of scores above is that I can't tell from the way the rules are worded whether W, VE, and USA possessions count as both Sections and Countries, or just Sections. Note to CAC and/or ARRL Contest Branch: The rules grammar needs to be vetted before next year. Equipment: * K3 w/sub-receiver 100-watt module * Alpha 87A * Shunt-fed 90-ft top-loaded tower with a few radials * Very short (150-250 foot) Beverages for Europe, California, and Japan * MacMini * SkookumLogger for the Mac Note: I live in a summer resort area. During the winter months I have very few neighbors and a very quiet location. Thanks in part to the punk conditions, the K3 S-meter was reading between S1 and S2 on band noise while using a 400-Hz roofing filter and DSP bandwidth — on my TRANSMIT vertical! That was true until or unless someone with key clicks, excessive phase noise, or a hum-modulated signal settled in next to me (meaning within 1-2 kHz). Then the S-meter was usually at S-9 or above. We have reached the level of technical excellence on Topband that propagation, receivers, and antennas are no longer the limiting factor in our ability to work weak signals. As Pogo once said, We have met the enemy, and he is us! There were times both evenings when it was absolutely impossible to find a frequency that was NOT bothered by key clicks, phase noise, spurs, hum, etc., from stations on neighboring frequencies. As a group of supposedly proficient amateurs, we should be ASHAMED that we have not done more to rectify this situation. (Oh, heavens no, Budrectification will only make it worse!) More about this later, when I've calmed down somewhat. Bud, W2RU Operator, W2BC ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Topband: PreStew Results
The Results for the 2011 PreStew contest are now posted on the Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge website. http://web.jzap.com/k7rat/stew.html Congrats to the winners: Single-Op High Power: KV4FZ Single-Op Low Power: SV0XBZ Single-Op QRP Power: NO3M Multi-Operator: T32C Remember the big stew is coming up on December 17/18. 73 Tree N6TR ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
