Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

Having gone from 100% phone operations to more than 90% CW in the past ten years, I have my opinions on mode use, but I'll attempt to keep them relevant. I have played a bit with RTTY and PSK, and have made a few Hellschreiber and Olivia contacts. Digital modes are technically interesting,

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

This is a very interesting discussion. I'd noticed some bugs in DXpedition mode with FT8 but am looking forward to those being resolved. I'd suggest an alternative FT8 frequency for any and all participants to test out DXPedition mode while the bugs get worked out. I have an inverted L on 160m

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

I predict that it won't be long before there is an FT-8 robot, or something similar, on the Moon!  What better way to test a new antenna than a long haul s/n report? No one has mention Amateur satellites yet that in some cases have allowed working thousands of miles with a handheld. On

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing

You missed the horror of SSB (c 1950s) - who wants to sound like Donald Duck? 73, Larry W6NWS On 3/30/2018 8:42 PM, John K9UWA wrote: Horrors FT8 and Digital JT65 etc? REAL Horrors QRO stations making contacts on FT8? Horrors SSB that Donald Duck stuff isn't PHONE? Horrors RTTY REAL hams

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing

Horrors FT8 and Digital JT65 etc? REAL Horrors QRO stations making contacts on FT8? Horrors SSB that Donald Duck stuff isn't PHONE? Horrors RTTY REAL hams do CW and PHONE? Horrors Multiple Guess FCC tests for hams? Horrors No Code Hams? Horrors using a Computer to Log your contacts?

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

When was the last time a mechanical RTTY machine responded back without it's human pushing the green keys? Mechanical RTTY machines have had answerback (WRU) capability for more than 50 years: 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 3/30/2018 2:21 PM,

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

On 3/30/2018 3:43 PM, daraym...@iowatelecom.net wrote: The rub comes in when those contacts are lumped in and counted for DXCC mixed and other recognition programs in the same manner as traditional contacts. The difference in sensitivity between FT8 and CW is about as much as between AM and

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

On 3/30/2018 1:12 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote: > What FT8 will bring is the ability to use daytimes on 160 and 80 for > reliable distance communications with particular people with real > communications, like texting over the phone or email. FT8 is not a "conversational mode" and can't (absent

Re: Topband: My personal thinking

As I said in the post - "in my opinion". You are most free to disagree with it. Other people's opinions should never be disturbing when no personal attack is made. And none was. Regardless of the above. Very sorry if my opinion offended anyone. 73 Ed N1UR _

Re: Topband: low inv-vee

1)  I have yet to (and likely never will) install an RX only antenna.  Hence, I receive on the same inverted-L I transmit on.  It's been my experience that I still hear better than I get out with 500W.  Perhaps it is just operator skill that makes it possible.  :-) 2)  "Poor" is rather

Re: Topband: My Personal Thinking

Personally I find these thoughts disturbing. Are we to judge ourselves and our morals , interests etc against the beliefs of some unknown individual, sitting at his keyboard from god knows where ? Ed you are basically saying that those who use modes (ft8) not approved by " your standards are

Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles

Greg, In concert with HA7RY (Tomi), one night I was monitoring OH8X while the monster Yagi was still up. At Tomi's QTH (in Hungary) it was very loud. I could barely copy it in FL. I worked EU stations that were much stronger. I think the antenna was too low and there was too much high-angle

Topband: My Personal Thinking

Hello! See Subject: (above) And there are those of us who just want our 9 Band DXCC using nothing but CW, and using just wire antennas and two Black Diamond poles. I have the CW certificates, but had to use more than 100 watts on 160, 80, and 40 meters. 73, CHAS, N5UL Hobbs, NM

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

I've "made a contact", if you want to call it that, with that robot twice now.  That's about the only use I have for FT8; making contacts that shouldn't count for anything, although, I think ARRL accepts them for the grid chase thingy. Wes  N7WS ps. At least it didn't send me a text via

Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles

Another thought on this. I visited W8JI's station some years ago where had the usual 4 square for 160 and also an inverted Vee at around 300 feet. He told me that the inverted Vee seldom played as good as or better than the 4 square The 4 square was usually much better. Bill K4XS/KH7XS

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

Hello George. . . Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I don't believe most hams have any issue with computer-to-computer modes opening up new opportunities for hams with limited facilities. The rub comes in when those contacts are lumped in and counted for DXCC mixed and other recognition

Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles

Hi Carl, OH8X was active for some months when I was making Qs with Eu, in particular OH. I never heard them at all, although I have no idea of exactly when they were QRV. My guess is that if their monster antenna had produced results, they would have been a lot more active. We can certainly

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

actually happening as we speak ( or type)..Jupiter Research Foundation has an unmanned boat type drone searching the pacific for humpback whales, and the drone has a solar powered ham transceiver on board, passing out FT8 contacts as it motors around the pacificlast I looked made a

Re: Topband: 160M Balun

Hi Frank, I just don´t see a reason to make chokes self resonant. If one really needs that a parallel resonant LC circuit can be formed with a normal choke and a capacitor. On my 160m dipole the choke at the feed point is wound with RG 141 on a stack of two large ferrite toroids which gives me a

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

George, I understand and agree with most of what you say, but the sailboat analogy is a bad one. I can sail a boat alone. I can't have a QSO without someone else on the same mode. The vacuum FT8 creates is the problem. 73, Tony K4QE On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 2:26 PM, GEORGE WALLNER

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

Dave, For those of us who like CW, it will always be the preferred mode. FT8 may lower the DXCC threshold; perhaps it should be counted differently. But FT8 is opening 160 m to hams with limited facilities, and that is a good thing. Most of us know that HF is a linear environment and that there

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

"Maybe someday there will be unmanned solar-powered stations on remote DX entities." This was actually proposed at the 2017 IDXC in Visalia by a well-known and prolific DXpeditioner. I was the only person in the room who stood up with a dissenting opinion about it. However, I did have several

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

No, That would not be useful, but a bunch of canned messages that resemble grid square numbers would be useful, especially when locations are preplanned. Look at all the Q Codes associated with a SOS, and you'll get some ideas. Ex. Exchange AA4FL KX4TT QTCC (locations are preplanned so

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

When 90% of band activity is taking place in ~1% of the available bandwidth, it gets one's attention, doesn't it. Personally, I have always considered DXpedition, and especially contest, CW exchanges to be a bit silly, with nearly everyone getting a 5NN signal report.  With today's technology I

Re: Topband: low inv-vee

1. You never use an inverted L or other vertical for receiving, unless maybe, you are in a QTH so remote and noise free it might work. But in-town, forget it. 2, From my experience, 7 or 8 out of 10 hams on 160 m., have poor antennas, usually low horizontal wires. Most of these fellows are

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

Just think about thatAfter some terrific disaster, you'll be able to tell the outside world your grid square & signal report. Good luck with that... Brian  K8BHZ On 3/30/2018 1:12 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote: I definitely do see FT8 as having an impact of some sort in disaster

Re: Topband: 160M Balun

Hi Peter, What you need in a common mode choke is adequate resistive component to absorb common mode signals as heat. The choke doesn't need to be at resonance to achieve adequate choking resistance, but it doesn't hurt either. It takes some thought and technical understanding to determine

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

FULLY AGREE. Perfect written. THANKS. BUT it is easy to solve this. If ARRL make a special award for no hearing QSO and make these computer to computer connections ONLY valid for this awardanyone that like to work dxcc this way can do so.Years ago they claimed minimum 339 or 33 on

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

The awards usually come with CW, SSB and digital as categories. What I see is FT8 displacing RTTY for awards, but not for contesting. What FT8 will bring is the ability to use daytimes on 160 and 80 for reliable distance communications with particular people with real communications, like

Re: Topband: 160M Balun

One can do better than 7 turns inside FT240 forms if you use RG400 for the winding and terminate the winding PL259's with UG175 adapters for the RG400. Choke made this way are near indestructible except ferrite cores blocking hundreds of volts RF common mode. RG400 is rated 7 kW due to teflon

Re: Topband: 160M Balun

## Much higher Zand much higher RSand minimal Xs. Plan B would be to use RG-400... but more than 7 turns. ## N3RR has his 160m CM chokes between 16k and 22k ohms. If you are going to build a 160M CM choke, you may as well do it right the 1st time. Jim VE7RF -Original

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

My thoughts on FT8: - How is it actually a Q from our normal perspective? The comments Jeff made on the fact that 2 operators (on both sides of the circuit) could see evidence of each other for 20 minutes before the "computers" finally made the connection - is proof that the operator

Re: Topband: 160M Balun

Why do you want it resonant? 73 Peter -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Thomson The 160m CM choke needs to resonate lower in freq. It requires more cores to shift the res freq down. _ Topband Reflector

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

SORRY to say. Of course everyone do what they like to do, BUT FT8 and ,,,no hearing QSO:s,,, will destroy our hobby. Same for me last 6 meter season . Had a 1 hour opening on 6 meter from Florida, to Minnesota and California on CWBUT made 7 QSO during 1 hour of open band. Most people were

Re: Topband: 160M Balun

Hi Jim, Have you considered using RG-303 or RG-400 ? They're commonly available on the internet and at hamfests at discount prices. Its similar in diameter to RG-58 but rated well over 1500 watts on 160 meters. However... You don't need a high performance choke on your vertical unless

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

I also observed the same on 6M last summer when the switch was flipped and FT8 replaced CW and SSB on 6M. I've enjoyed 6M for only a few years, but I lost all interest, despite my 6L SteppIR and KPA500, when that happened. I've had a handful of FT8 QSOs early on, but I got no satisfaction

Topband: 160M Balun

Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2018 07:22:18 -0400 From: "N2TK, Tony" To: Subject: Topband: 160M Balun http://www.contesting.com/_topband

Re: Topband: 160M Balun

I measured the Comtek bead balun on 160m and found there is low choking resistance. I use the K9YC design with good results, whether it will make any difference in your antenna system is something you will need to try. With more than 5x the choking resistance with the K9YC 7T on 5 #31core

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

I’ve been having a lot of fun with FT8 but it certainly has not replaced CW for my DXing. I do 80M-specific DX Marathon each year. So far this year I have 107 80M DXCCs worked - 104 on CW and 3 on SSB. And none that I needed FT8 or RTTY for. I will agree, if a guy doesn’t do CW, FT8 is

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

IMHO, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the demise of CW (alas). Between FT8 and RHR, topband standings as we have known them are virtually meaningless. The guy with a backyard vertical, reasonable radial system, and 100w can easily accomplish on topband (and get equal DXCC credit)

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

Clive: We do have a 40 mtr antenna at the digital site. I will keep that in mind. Prop charts show a 1 hour window to OH/GM/ etc. EU is a target area of our operation, hence the 24 hour 20 mtr manning of stations. 73 Don At 09:46 AM 3/30/2018, Clive GM3POI wrote: Don, seeing your

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

Don, seeing your trip is midsummer, you should strongly consider using FT8 for EU on 40m as to Western EU there is NO common darkness. Otherwise the lowest band Western EU will be able to work KH1 is 30m. 73 Clive GM3POI -Original Message- From: Topband

Re: Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

Jeff, and others: From K1JT on the WSJT web pages and instructions: Please note: DXpedition Mode is not yet ready for production use. Until WSJT-X v1.9.0 is fully released, this mode should be used only in controlled test situations. Please remember to send us your test results. As one of

Topband: Straws in the Wind ....A 160m Dx'ing Sea Change is Upon us!

Hello Gang  I am probably not the only one who has been paying attention lately, but I may be the first to comment directly on what has been taking place right before our eyes the past two nights on 1.836kHz - and its possible implications going forward for future Dx'ing on 160m. Pls read on.  

Topband: 160M Balun

I shunt feed my tower for Topband. Presently using a Comtek 100 bead balun. After reading K9YC's article on baluns it would seem that a stack of five #31 cores with 7 turns of coax would be a better balun. Would I notice an improvement in any way by switching baluns? If the answer is I would

Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles

Hi Luke, What I should have said is that propagation towards much lower latitudes doesn't suffer from the polarization related issues that high latitude paths suffer from. My thinking suffers from northern hemisphere biases! 73 Frank W3LPL - Original Message - From: "VK3HJ"