And then there are salt water mounted verticals offering up to 6 dB over a
land-mounted single element antenna. Ideally the salt water mounted antenna
will have 50 wavelengths of water in the target direction (about 5 miles).
For mainland U.S. stations a shoreline-mounted antenna will not provide
that 6 dB to the U.S. mainland. Having an antenna on a boat a few miles
offshore will provide the gain to the mainland and everywhere else.
The Great Salt Lake of Utah offers good performance to most of the U.S.
with an antenna set up on the road to Stansbury island. I operated a
1/4-wavelength balloon antenna from there in 2008 with great results. If
anyone wants to try it I recommend something that will remain mostly
vertical in a wind. A kytoon or advertising blimp might be the ticket. I
used a 36" balloon and it was blown down onto the water for part of the
night. Still, I doubled the number of QSOs I ever made from land.
Here in Hawai'i NH6V, AH7RF and I have operated ten top band contests using
a full size ground plane mounted 15' back of the shoreline. We have a clear
a clear shot to North America and low ambient RF noise. It's 5-6 dB over
other verticals in Hawai'i. We are working on improvements to add a few dB
of antenna performance.
Dave KH6AQ
On Sun, Jul 19, 2026 at 7:09 PM Jim Brown via Topband <
[email protected]> wrote:
> On 7/19/2026 4:45 PM, Tim Duffy wrote:
> > I think Eric "The Locust", K6VVA operated a 160 contest from an AM
> station in Aptos, CA - at one time it had the callsign KKAP. The three 160
> foot "poles" were adjacent to a hotel I stay at every year when I visit
> Trey, N5KO before the International DX Convention in the spring.
>
> Yes, I was on the air from about 20 miles away during that contest. He
> was running barefoot, I was running legal limit into a 100 ft Tee with
> poor soil (redwood duff over granite) My friend who I address as "El
> Locusto Grande" when we meet, is one of the world's more intrepid
> operators, but not technically inclined.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
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