Re: Topband: K9AY minimum spacing from TX

I don't want to say "No Impact" but my K9AY is in a line of trees and has very strong directivity with deep null. It is about 50 feet from the vertical element of my transmit T, and definitely in the shadow (80 feet below) of the top element of the transmit T. I can ground, unhook, etc. the

Re: Topband: What is a valid CW contact

When you're trying to work a DXpedition outside a contest, I see no problem with checking live log and working them again until they get your call right. Things are different in a contest. I don't think contesters should be checking live logs. Quoting some rules: CQ 160: "Do not arrange or

Re: Topband: ARRL 160

Pete, I'm totally with you in terms of using N1MM configured to show dupes on the bandmap, and thus give me awareness of what other spots are recently on that frequency and then using my brain to throw out the obvious bust for a well-known callsign. Not everyone else's software supports showing

Re: Topband: amp tripping on 160

If everything is fine at lower power but trips at higher power, it could be RFI. But I would suspect an arcover somewhere. It sounds like your feedpoint is low impedance but there can be arcovers on the insulator at the end of your L, too. Or if your L is spaced off from the tower with

Re: Topband: Good Conditions, Little Activity

Roger, from my location in W3, I enjoyed a truly spectacular opening to Europe at your sunrise in Russian DX Contest last night. I had a good amount of QRN from spring storms in NA, but the EU signals were super loud and easily copied over the QRN. Just huge. Tim N3QE On Friday, March 19, 2021,

Re: Topband: ARRL CW Contest

Yes! Signals from EU were huge on 160 for many hours both nights. I had to peer at my radio dial a few times just to be sure I wasn't accidentally on 80 or something. 80 was great too. How far west in US/Canada did you work, Roger? Tim N3QE On Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 6:49 AM Roger Kennedy wrote:

Re: Topband: K9AY Loop Proximity to Structures

Pete, I live in a residential neighborhood (not the most dense by any means), and all my receive antennas will point towards my house or a nearby neighbor's house. There are certainly buzzes and whines in parts of 160M that are accentuated in some directions on some RX antennas and not so much in

Re: Topband: Good valve homebrew rig

NO3M has done some truly top-notch work with tube transmitters and I've worked him using several of his "vintage homebrew" rigs on 160M. They are BEAUTIFUL ! Check out some pics: http://no3m.net/vintage/160m-1928-mopa/ Tim N3QE On Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 4:02 PM Annas Alamudi wrote: > Hi! > > I

Re: Topband: Stainless Steel for coil taps

Roger, I have gone through the school of hard knocks on alligator clips, especially as my home station went from 100W to making major efforts at legal limit RTTY contests. While the BU-27C end serrations are great for 10-14AWG copper wire, I would like to add that the BU-27C also has a lipped

Re: Topband: Stainless Steel for coil taps.

Conductivity of Copper: 5.85 x 10^7 mho/m Conductivity of 301 Stainless: 0.14 x 10^ mho/m Stainless is 42 times worse conductor than copper. Larry, was the band clamp holding a copper conductor onto the coil, or was the band clamp actually being relied on for conductivity. If current was being

Re: Topband: Wednesday CW DX Activity Night

Last night was great! I only was on for a half hour at 0400z (after the 0300 CWT) and worked 8 Europeans. Judging by on air rates and reversebeacon queries, US Midwest stations were having even more success than me :-). I know K3LR got on and sent a couple CQs and his EU skims were 20 dB

Re: Topband: K9AY amplifier

Unless you are in some incredibly-low-atmospheric-noise location, the rig's preamplifier will be enough for a K9AY loop. It is important to use good coax with intact shield. I was helping a friend of mine with his K9AY and his old coax was leaking in more signal than the antenna was picking up.

Re: Topband: ARRL 160M and 1830-1835 change

e in a few days ago, and the summary of rules in there says > "1.830-1.835 MHz should be used for intercontinental contacts only." > > Dropping that rule was long overdue so glad to see it stated in the rules > online. > > 73/Jon AA1K > > > > > >

Re: Topband: ARRL 160M and 1830-1835 change

he summary of rules in there > says "1.830-1.835 MHz should be used for intercontinental contacts only." > > Dropping that rule was long overdue so glad to see it stated in the rules > online. > > 73/Jon AA1K > > > -Original Message- > From: Tim Sh

Topband: ARRL 160M and 1830-1835 change

Also as I review this years ARRL 160M rules... An earlier version of the rules (current in 2012) here http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest%20Rules%20PDFs/2012/2012-160M-Rules-V2.pdf says "6.1 The segment 1.830 to 1.835 should be used for intercontinental QSOs only". The latest version here

Topband: JA Window - CW - newbie question

I saw some news about JA frequency/mode allocations changing in the past year and seem to recall new frequencies available for data and phone. For plain old 160 Meter CW - is the JA Window still 1.810 through 1.825 MHz? Tim N3QE _ Searchable Archives:

Re: Topband: Wednesday CW DX Activity Night

I think I was the one who first suggested Wednesday night aka Thursday morning UTC, because the CWOps 0300z session wraps up at 0400z after which I prowl around 160 a bit looking for EU DX. I know there are several EU's who I work every week in the 0300Z session so they are already up in the

Re: Topband: Receive ant - binocular cores

Tony, I have abused BN-73-202 cores at the 100W level when I accidentally transmit into the receive antenna through the transformer. I have smoked the termination resistor but never damaged the transformer by transmitting into them. I have used single BN-73-202 cores at the several watt level

Re: Topband: Tesla Powerwall and RFI

I don't know about Tesla Powerwall in specific. And I don't know if you are asking about solar-charged (as opposed to grid-charged) Tesla Powerwall but likely you are. Wiring solar panels to inverters (charging inverters or to-grid inverters) can be done correctly - where the +/- pairs are kept

Re: Topband: PTFE wire supplier

There are "equipment de-installers" that salvage different size/color hunks of Teflon/Tefzel wire from their day jobs and sell the pieces on E-bay at what hams would consider reasonable prices. Lengths are all over the place from a few feet at a time to many dozens of feet at a time. At higher

Re: Topband: CQ WW Contest

A side note on the subject line... All nine major CQ contests (including 160, VHF, and WPX) have official names starting with “CQ World Wide”. Even the three WPX contests have official names starting “CQ World Wide WPX”. Colloquially we would usually say CQWW when talking about the big HF

Re: Topband: Any Linrad selective limiter noise blanker experts here?

On Mon, Jan 20, 2020 at 10:44 AM Tim Shoppa wrote: > My horrible utility line noise (which afflicted me in ARRL 160) continues > and I'm looking to operate in the CQ 160 test this weekend and not be an > alligator. I've located the offending pole but lack any way of getting it > fixed o

Re: Topband: Any Linrad selective limiter noise blanker experts here?

Rick, there are irregularities in my noise - and in the previous utility line noises I've had at my QTH - that prevent any predict-the-exact-time-of-the-noise-spike-in-advance algorithms. Although my sample size is small the experts have told me that randomly raucous 2-4 spikes every 120Hz I see

Topband: Any Linrad selective limiter noise blanker experts here?

My horrible utility line noise (which afflicted me in ARRL 160) continues and I'm looking to operate in the CQ 160 test this weekend and not be an alligator. I've located the offending pole but lack any way of getting it fixed on such short notice. In a quiet non-contest topband session, my rig's

Re: Topband: de n7dd

Larry, I understand most modern doorknobs (e.g. HEC's) at or below 170pF are NPO. I think 3 170pF's in parallel may work if you truly need NPO. Matching network or blocking capacitor? Tim N3QE On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 11:35 PM Larry via Topband wrote: > does anyone know of a HV (20KV) capacitor

Re: Topband: 7X7X

7X4AN was on 80M earlier in the night with S7 signals and I worked him with 100W. 7X7X had a superior signal - sounded like any local - and I also worked him with 100W. I am sure you will get through after the pileup dies down. 7X7X had a far bigger pileup than 7X4AN who was CQ'ing lonely. BTW,

Topband: Topband relays

Continuing from N4ZR’s relay thread and Rob’s observation: For low impedance (50 ohm ballpark) side switching, I went to Struthers Dunn (now P) DPDT T92 relays with paralleled 30A contacts. I got a big boy legal-limit amp and have been COMPLETELY happy with these at legal limit. Several

Re: Topband: Wednesday 160m DX CW Activity Night

Large swaths of both the contesting and DXing communities are not hooked up for RBN skimmer spots. No more than a few percent of supposedly active cluster nodes even carry skimmer spots. As a result there is a very real spike in activity when manual spots are entered into the cluster even in CW

Re: Topband: PreStew coming next weekend

Sometimes EU participation in the Big Stew is weak. But there was very noticeable EU participation in this past weekend's Pre-Stew. I was only on briefly but I had a blast! Tim N3QE On Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 2:32 PM uy0zg wrote: > Hi > > In southern Ukraine it was very weak with North America. >

Re: Topband: 160 meter QSL card checking

The CQ Magazine DX Marathon judge seems to have some superb smarts as to what validates a plausible contact. I know for sure he caught it when due to a typo of mine, I busted a callsign from a perfectly common entity (G = England) on my 80M DX Marathon application and he even knew the correct

Re: Topband: Furnace RFI

Some good news/bad news intermingled below :-) At my house we had two modern air handlers and heat pumps put in about 5 years ago. They were high-efficiency rated and had Genteq ECM motors. Note that I call them ECM motors, not DC motors - they have power electronics that take regular 60Hz AC

Topband: OY1R great signal on 160M tonight

Some QSB but easy copy much of the time, working simplex on 160M CW. Grayline says this was 20 minutes before his sunrise. Audio here: http://n3qe.org/oy1r.wav Tim N3QE _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector

Re: Topband: 160 skip distance

There's a "max distance in pure daylight" Stew Perry award at least some years? At start of a 160M contest (5PM local time, shortly before my sunset) I have no problem making QSO's into Indiana and Illinois (600-700 miles). I would be reluctant to call this NVIS. The stations doing 500+ miles in

Re: Topband: Hairpin match to inverted L?

Pete, broadly in matching theory, a series-capacitor match can often be replaced with a series L and shunt C to ground. Often the topology will be chosen on component value reasonableness and convenience of what's grounded where. Other times you might have a strong preference for a matching

Re: Topband: Impressive demonstration of one dB of signal strength improvement

//n3qe.org/sum.wav Just in case you are interested, the raw noise and raw morse WAV files before mixing below: N3QE WAV: My raw noise (no morse): http://n3qe.org/noise.wav N3QE WAV: My raw morse (no noise): http://n3qe.org/morse.wav Tim N3QE On Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 3:34 PM Tim Shoppa wrote:

Re: Topband: Effect of trees on vertical elements?

John, your 80M dipole with 110 foot vertical feedline fed as a top-loaded vertical on 160M is a wonderful antenna. If you are unhappy with its receive performance,the solution is to add a receive antenna (or two, or three!). Not to put up a worse transmitting antenna :-) Tim N3QE On Mon,

Re: Topband: FT-8 performance

We went thorugh a similar discussion here a year ago about the "cooked" S/N statistics. Or at least they are cooked in a way that no CW operator would cook them, by considering a bandwidth 50 times wider than the FT8 signal. On a quiet WARC FT8 band (no interfering carriers) signals that are -18dB

Re: Topband: Which RX antenna is better?

Terry, I strongly encourage you to put up the K9AY. By no numerical measure is it the best. But it’s easy to put up and Compared to all the others, it is relatively insensitive to other objects around it. And for a first RC antenna, it is super satisfying to click between directions and hear

Re: Topband: Antenna Switch isolation capacitor

The Ameritron RCS-4 uses three .01uF 1kV disc capacitors in parallel in this position. I don't think 4 ohms of XC is a biggie in the antenna system SWR, but increased current handling capability of paralleled capacitors is a real advantage at legal limit. Tim N3QE On Tue, Jun 25, 2019 at 4:30

Re: Topband: AM interference on 1840

1838-1841 is the FT8 no-mans land anyway so not useful for CW anymore. Tim N3QE > On May 20, 2019, at 10:20 AM, Jorge Diez - CX6VM > wrote: > > Hello > > do you notice a second harmonic on 1840? It´s very strong > > I determined that is from LA VOZ DEL PUEBLO 920 AM, in Colombia > >

Re: Topband: Farming and Ham Radio don't mix too well.

I don't own a farm, just an oddly shaped suburban lot, and I'd like to assure you that I run over and chop up more radials than you ever will. Most of my radials also run over driveway etc and the most vulnerable places are where they transition between driveway and grass. My radials are mostly

Re: Topband: doublet as marconi

Mike, just like you plan to do, I use a doublet on 80 and up, and tie the feed line together at the base and feed it against ground as a Marconi T on 160M. I use Deltrol 900-series open frame 30A relays to remotely do the switching of the ladder line. These are officially rated to 2200VRMS but

Topband: VI9NI topband peak just before W3 sunrise

This recording from a peak that lasted about 5 minutes before my sunrise: http://n3qe.org/vi9ni-160m.wav I had been listening for an hour before and heard just glimmers before the nice peak. Tim N3QE _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector

Re: Topband: XR0ZRC?

David, some stats from Clublog below: In 2013, XR0ZR made a major 160M effort, in South American summer: 160: 1050 Q's 80: 2374 Q's 40: 4579 Q's I think it's unreasonable to expect that every single DXpedition will be fruitful on 160M. 2018: XR0ZRC stats from Clublog: 160: 75 Q's 80: 1983 Q's

Re: Topband: Frequency Dependant Remote antenna switching

Along the same lines: W7IY had a very nice article in September 2017 NCJ, where he shows how he uses an ESP8266 WiFi module (circa $2) to remotely switch 80M antenna tuner coils in and out as the rig QSY's around the 80M band segments. N1MM+ sends UDP packets containing band and frequency

Topband: T31EU peaking at W3 sunrise

Very nice peak-up this AM, two minutes before my sunrise: http://n3qe.org/t31eu.wav AND one of my favorite songs as of late... about a vampire with a curious and ultimately unhealthy obsession with staying up until the last moment before sunrise: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PNuTEUUUZ4k Tim

Re: Topband: ARRL DX contest

Wow, I thought the first night was FANTASTIC on 160M. But the last hour on Sunday was CRAZY. Especially northern Europe sounded like it was in my backyard. Scandinavian stations just booming in, rest of Europe doing great too! Tim N3QE On Sat, Feb 16, 2019 at 10:50 AM W7RH wrote: > Greetings

Re: Topband: FT8 vs other modes - my numbers

ontests were for. > > How many countries did you work on FT8 that you did not or could not > work on any other mode. That would be my definition of productive. > > Productive to me is working new ones with the least amount of time > expended. > > W0MU > > On 2/1/2019

Topband: FT8 vs other modes - my numbers

There are some untrue things being assumed here, as if they are advantages to FT8 that make FT8 be a more productive mode for DX'ing. In fact FT8 is the least productive of all modes I used in 2018. And I was on FT8 a lot in 2018. I tried hard to be productive in FT8 - measured in Q's per hour,

Re: Topband: Found my K9AY by WX0B AX-AYl-4 unit

We should not think of a K9AY as having a sharp forward peak. You won’t be able to tell NE from E easily. However they have a very good and useful backwards null which is deep. The loops do not have to be perpendicular. Point the loops in directions that give you the most useful nulls. My

Re: Topband: Inverted L improvements - Part 3 (now with data)

Todd, have you been tracking your antenna system's performance using reversebeacon after your sunset? I'm guessing that your sunset is circa 0300Z. Last night (Jan 24) you were picked up at 9 western skimmers, perhaps the furthest ones from you being WB6BEE and the VE6's. Based on my

Re: Topband: Need for capacitor

Dave, was the original a doorknob? Like this? https://www.rfparts.com/580075-7p.html Some manufacturers have taken towards, as padding on the loading side of the tank, super quality glass high current surface mount caps in which case it would look like a silvery rectangle. Tim N3QE > On Dec

Re: Topband: FT8 - How it really works

Chuck, I suspect something wasn’t quite right with your setup? At my QTH in W3 I can hear multiple FT8 signals on 1840kc USB (2.4khz bandwidth) from before my sunset until after sunrise. They are whining/droning carriers for 13 seconds every 15 seconds. Only for that less than 2 seconds every

Topband: On FT8, noise bandwidths, filters, and signal vs noise.

I broadly enjoy the digital modes, especially RTTY, and have been using some FT8 outside of contests. A signal power that FT8 reports as being at -15dB, is easily heard and copied by ear by any decent CW operator. I think a really good CW operator could pull (maybe with a few repeats) callsigns

Re: Topband: Recomended Relays

Sam, several years ago I started doing relay switching for automation of band changes etc. At the time I had a 4x811A amp so (optimistically) was aiming for the kilowatt power handling ability (really that amp was lucky to put out 650W). I had looked at what commercial or published article

Re: Topband: ARRL DXCC - 160 Meters

Bill, all indications are that he got his fake OK1RD 2008 DXCC totals using paper cards, not LOTW. I would expect he got his fake 2018 totals in a similar way. Example fake card, as deconstructed by G3TXF: http://www.g3txf.com/dxtrip/Fake-C21XF/Fake-C21.html One thing is for sure, he's

Re: Topband: 160m Activity...musings from VE6

In the pre-stew, I was honestly surprised how many EU guys I worked for the first time ever. Not just the first time on 160M, but first time ever on any band or mode. I have been quite impressed with W3 <-> W6 QSO's at 100W CW on topband in the past few weeks too. It really seems easier than in

Re: Topband: Gamma match success

I would caution against using Russian military surplus doorknobs, or Chinese doorknobs, in a tuned circuit without understanding their dielectrics. I tried a couple and was very disappointed. With HEC 7.5kV doorknobs, you would want to make it out of values of 170pF or below. Below 170pF they

Re: Topband: FW: [cwops] Topband season looking good

I heard both sides of the QSO last night between TO6OK and K9CT on 160M! Wow! I didn't get a topband QSO with Mayotte myself but it looks like maybe 50 or so US stations did. Tim N3QE On Fri, Oct 5, 2018 at 9:44 AM wrote: > Hi topband lovers > > The good days of 160m propagation is back!

Re: Topband: Toploaded vertical - SWR

Your suggestion of a hairpin is a high-pass. Herb's suggestion for a series-L shunt-C L-network is a low-pass. Sometimes you might prefer one over the other. Or choice might be entirely driven by parts on hand. I happen to have some big old variable capacitors so all my tuners use them. But a

Re: Topband: Air Wound Coil

That is a very nice transmitter tank coil for a kilowatt amplifier. But if you have already calculated or measured the inductance you need, you can just wrap reasonable gauge insulated wire around any cardboard or plastic form you find. I used magnet wire around a cardboard tube. You can see a

Re: Topband: Beverage transformers tht work down to 630 m

measure down to about 450khz so below that I cannot give an opinion. > > 73, de gary...ps: the BN202-73 will likely work well with two/6 turns and > 3/9 for a 9:1 system for 50 ohms > -Original Message- > From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Chuck >

Re: Topband: Beverage transformers tht work down to 630 m

I agree the usual rule of thumb (Transformer winding Z should be several times larger than nominal line impedance) would cause you to think you should have more turns. The old Clifton Labs website is no more. But an archived page of measurements of transformers shows that the frequency response

Re: Topband: KH1/KH7Z TopBand Ops Brief

Thanks for the write up George! What impresses me looking at Clublog stats, that is US East Coast (CQ zone 5) has about the same number of 160M and 80M QSOs. This shows a super effort made on 160M with quantifiable results. I was surprised to work KH1 on 15M right before my midnight. That is

Re: Topband: Any experience with 2N3553?

I believe the old Clifton Labs pages had some nice info on JFET parameters. Can't get to anymore? W7ZOI has a nice page on measuring IDSS which I recall to be the parameter on the spec sheet most relevant: http://w7zoi.net/jfet101.pdf Measuring IDSS only takes a 10V power supply and a

Re: Topband: FT8 Observations

On being able to hear signals at -12 to -17 dB on FT8, I do broadly agree. A CW signal at those levels would be easily heard and copied by any decent CW operator. I think a lot of the FT8 “processing gain” claims, assumes a really poor CW operator. A 0dB FT8 signal is not at noise level, it is

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: Speaking of Noises...

Here is a recording (made on 80M a few years ago but sounds substantially the same on 160M) of what I'm told is the Wallops Island Ionosonde: http://n3qe.org/wumwum_80M.wav Here is the waveform showing 4 louder cycles followed by three softer cycles: http://n3qe.org/wumwum.png If you look at

Re: Topband: Speaking of noises...

Here on the east coast, we have have the Wallops Island Ionosounde. Audible on 160M, 80M, and 40M every couple of minutes. Tim. On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 12:48 PM, Bill Tippett wrote: > Does anyone know the source of periodic wideband buzzes that sound like > this: > >

Re: Topband: 160m DX Activity Night

Wednesday evening into Thursday morning works for me. Roger, there is already a 0300Z CWops session the same night which makes this a good choice, you will see a big spike up in NA 160M activity 0350z-0400z and if I see I’m being heard in EU by reversebeacon I will stick around on 160M

Topband: E31A on Topband

E31A was up and down for a while last night, sometimes OK copy for me and sometimes not. But in the hour before his sunrise he really peaked up A LOT. My logger tells me his sunrise at at 3:53Z and my QSO was about 40 minutes before that. Tim N3QE _ Topband Reflector Archives -

Re: Topband: Detuning Relay Flyback Diode

Whether a flyback diode is needed depends on what is driving the relay and whether it needs snubbing. Adding a flyback diode substantially lengthens the time it takes a relay to open, which may or may not be an issue. What was a 6ms relay will become several times longer on open. There are better

Re: Topband: Big 160m openings just before K index spikes

I don't think it's just topband. I've observed exceptionally good conditions right before a solar disturbance hits earth, on any and all bands. Tim N3QE On Tue, Dec 5, 2017 at 12:22 AM, Bob Lawson N6RW wrote: > Is it just my imagination or have others noticed big 160 meter

Re: Topband: Good Conditions or Just Activity?

I was happy to work two “new to me” European callsigns on 160M last night and heard many of the EU topband regulars warming up for this weekends contest. Seemed decent enough conditions to me. 80M seemed particularly good last night to Asiatic Russia. Tim N3QE > On Dec 1, 2017, at 5:39 AM,

Re: Topband: FT8 qrm & Bandplanning History on 160m

Thing is, FT8 is by transmitted signal measurement, a narrow band mode just like CW. Even narrower than typical CW. Yet we have CW signals interfering with FT8 users self-perceived window, when they are 2kc away from each other. So a regulation by transmitted signal bandwidth does not seem to

Re: Topband: FT8 qrm

My scenario had the CW man on the frequency FIRST. > >> On 11/29/2017 4:54 AM, Tim Shoppa wrote: >> A typical CW guy will hear FT8 or JT65 as a kinda whiny wobbly intermittent >> carrier. And will probably think it’s just some neighborhood switching power >> supply nois

Re: Topband: FT8 qrm

A typical CW guy will hear FT8 or JT65 as a kinda whiny wobbly intermittent carrier. And will probably think it’s just some neighborhood switching power supply noise. He won’t CQ right on top of it (because he wants to hear a DX respondent) but he will have no problem firing up 500 Hz away.

Re: Topband: FT8 on 160m

As a practical matter there are several 2 kHZ segments of each band that are now devoted to 24x7 JT65, FT8, and other digital modes. Weak signal CW work - eg working rare mults or even just weak guys from common mults - in those segments just isn’t gonna happen. Substantial parts of 80M and

Re: Topband: BOG pre amp info ?

Input impedance on the W7IUV preamp is determined almost entirely by the DC bias currents. Clifton Labs used to have a really nifty set of pages on modeling and measurement of the various high performance preamps. I really miss that site. Tim N3QE On Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 9:46 AM, Roger Kennedy

Topband: WSPR data archive for 160M?

Roger, you raise an interesting point about "you can see (lack of sunrise enhancement) very clearly when there's a contest on". That is an interesting observation. Several times in the past years I've been on during a weeknight (non-weekend) in winter and observed really great enhancements

Re: Topband: No American activity

A lot of us are either regaining sleep after CQ WW Phone, AND/OR we spent most of the night listening to the 3C1L pileups :-) Tim N3QE On Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 6:15 AM, Roger Kennedy < ro...@wessexproductions.co.uk> wrote: > > There are usually several of us Europeans on at around our Sunrise

Re: Topband: A way forward to keep 'old school' modes vibrant alongside FT-8? (long)

Quoting ARRL Contest Update for October 18 2017: "FT8 mode usage continues to increase! According to a tweet by Michael, G7VJR, operator of Club Log, "In September 2017, the number of FT8 QSOs uploaded to Club Log was the same as CW and SSB combined." (Bengt, K7ADD)" DXCC concept of "by mode"

Topband: 3C0L

3C0L had superb signals on 160M last night and a ginormous pileup. Their signal started out an hour before my sundown, on my NE-facing K9AY loop, but began showing QSB there an hour after my sundown. I then checked and was surprised their signal was so much better on my transmit antenna. This is

Re: Topband: Radials question

Mike, a different question than you asked, but if you have two trees or other supports at 65 feet or greater and more than 130ft apart, I think an 80M dipole strung between them will be a better all around antenna than a vertical. If you can get to 80ft or 100ft the dipole was be markedly

Re: Topband: propagation question.

Bruce, I went and looked at reversebeacon statistics for the two nights before the Chelyabinsk meteor (that would be 13 Feb 2013 and 14 Feb 2013) as well as the night of the strike (15 Feb 2013). The strike was at 0320Z. I specifically looked for 160M EU-NA transatlantic reversebeacon spots and

Topband: Digital on 160M stats

We've had a lot of heated discussions the past week. But we also have at our fingertips, some actual statistics. In Clublog stats, nobody in North America has more than 54 entities worked on 160M with digital modes. The leader with 54 entities on 160M digital is W1VT, a well-known and very

Topband: N7QT on "Increasing the Rate of the JT Modes"

In the latest ARRL Contest Update, N7QT has a very interesting article on increasing rate with the usually slow JT65 modes, from a max of one QSO every 6 minutes to one every 4 minutes. K7ADD notes an additional doubling of rate can be achieved if you can keep two QSO's in flight at any point in

Re: Topband: Top Band and JT65

Maybe JT65 is too young to have good statistics, but how many DXCC entities have ever been activated on JT65 on 160M? Phone as an amateur mode had been around for what, half a century, before they introduced the CW-specific DXCC Certificate in the late 1970's. Before then it was just assumed that

Re: Topband: transformers, teflon tubing

Enamel-insulated magnet wire easily gets knicked going around the sharp corners of a core. Although the core isn't very ohmically conductive, a knick at a corner is enough to affect the operation of the transformer. I think the old Clifton Laboratories page had a little section of measurements of

Re: Topband: Automatic Antenna matching

Martin, I and others use the UDP broadcast packets from N1MM, HRD, and other loggers to drive antenna tuners and/or antenna tuner relays. The logger reads the frequency from the rigs and broadcasts over local network (in my case, including Wi-Fi) using a standard UDP packet. The mode, transmit

Re: Topband: greyline forecast for 80m

Mirko S57AD, congratulations! I'm much closer to Alaska and I only work Alaska a couple times a year on 80M. I have been a ham for 39 years now, but I am a "newbie" to 80M. I never had an actual 80M antenna until 2008. The first week I had my 80M antenna up, I didn't "know" that "80M was only a

Re: Topband: Echo on 160m yesterday morning

I have heard echoes of my own signal under some circumstances too. More often on 80M but a couple times on 160M. Often in the hour before dawn. These echoes were also heard on other stations within a few hundred miles, especially ones to my north. For the 160M echoes, some stations in W1 were

Topband: 160M QRP Sprint Tuesday night

I will be on for the 160M NAQCC QRP Sprint Tuesday night! 0130Z to 0330Z Wednesday which is 8:30PM to 10:30PM Tuesday night east coast time. Want to check out your RX antennas for the upcoming CQ 160? This is a great opportunity! Full details here: http://naqcc.info/sprint/sprint201701_160.html

Re: Topband: RTTY Beacon 1790 KHZ

Joe and I have faintly heard some sort of non-ARRL 160M voice bulletin on weekends. I remember being told it was in NJ or NY and it was a continuation of some Jean Shepherd tradition. Anyone recognize this low power 160M voice bulletin I'm talking about? Tim N3QE Sent from my VAX-11/780 > On

Topband: Stew dates - before Christmas, please!

Holding the Stew this in a weekend before Christmas, rather than between Christmas and New Years, seems to have substantially boosted EU participation this year. This is over and above the very nice conditions we had to EU. I contrast with some other recent years where the Stew was held between

Re: Topband: RX ant-Frozen ground

Steve - when I see an increase in Intermod, my mind goes away from poor grounds, and towards oxidized connectors and flaky relay contacts. Reseat all connectors, tighten all screws, and hot-switch relay contacts till you find the offender. Tim N3QE Sent from my iPhone > On Dec 7, 2016, at

Re: Topband: ARRL 160

In Emails with the ARRL 160M and 10M logchecker in past few years he has confirmed to me that their logchecking software supports XQSO: at least for those two contests. Tim N3QE Sent from my iPhone > On Dec 5, 2016, at 3:13 PM, Tree wrote: > > There is no penalty for busting a

Re: Topband: advice on simple end fire array

t NQ6N > > On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 11:45 AM, Tim Shoppa <tsho...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> From where I am in W3, the EU numbers in a Stew (including prestew and >> summer stew) seems highly variable. Many "good non contest nights" I work >> more EU than in a

Re: Topband: advice on simple end fire array

>From where I am in W3, the EU numbers in a Stew (including prestew and summer >stew) seems highly variable. Many "good non contest nights" I work more EU >than in a stew. I would put reversibility high on your list because you could potentially pick up more points from LP or QRP stations to

Re: Topband: Where is everyone?

Some of us are looking at the contest calendar for next 7 consecutive weekends (CQWWSSB; ARRLSSCW; WAERTTY; ARRLB; CQWWCW; ARRL160M; ARRL10M) and spending some quality time with our families in advance! I will be on full-bore for the Pre-Stew but that's only one night so no big deal. I

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