t a much higher level than I ever did anything. :)
73, Jim K9YC
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Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
night! The magnitude of this achievement technically is
to realize that the two modes are working within 20 kHz of each other,
and listening within 10 kHz, and the CW station is running high power!
George Wallner, AA7JV, is one of my heroes!
73, Jim K9YC
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ll first
rate, as were the FT8 ops for QSOs on 160, 60, and 12M. I only called
them on bands where I had no QSOs from earlier expeditions.
73, Jim K9YC
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Clarifying -- I have no criticism of the current and recent trips. My
thoughts go back several years. :)
73, Jim K9YC
On 9/2/2024 2:01 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
When expedition leaders have raised half a million dollars and make a
mess of it due to poor planning and/or overlooking important stuff
from those having made significant contributions is well
justified.
73, Jim K9YC
On 9/2/2024 1:33 PM, Ron Spencer via Topband wrote:
My universal response to anyone who publicly complains about how a
dxpedition is being run (and I will always defend you're right to post
such input) is:
I am
e the extensive writing you have done about it. You are an
inspiration to us all, especially to the engineers among us!
73, Jim K9YC
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Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
s to use their brain to copy
the exchange. It is, indeed, all about RADIO, antennas, and noise.
I'm only trying to fill the DXCC slots I didn't already have. I just
worked them on 30 CW, first call. Worked FT8 on 60 and 17. I still need
160, 12, 10, and 6. I'm monitor
t of the battery chargers I've found give
generators a hard time, I must run the EU2200i significantly below its
rated loading, so it can't keep up. I've recently bought a larger
dual-fuel gen from Costco. It's not yet seen service.
73, Jim K9YC
On 8/11/2024 11:34 PM, Mich
erter that powers our home during
power failures. The concept of using batteries to buffer the gen came
from George's work over the years on island expeditions.
There's a guy up the coast (in OR, I think) who sells the conversion kits.
73, Jim K9YC
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c.com/RXChokesTransformers.pdf
Depending on your available resources, I'd try 15-20 turns on a 2.4-in
o.d. #31, tightly wound.
The same link includes recommendations for transformers, where DC is not
needed. Again, using whatever cores you have.
73, Jim K9YC
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On 8/9/2024 3:37 PM, Wes Stewart via Topband wrote:
Only mad dogs and Englishmen...
Yep!
Jim
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
away from RFI.
Still, congrats on this DX!
73
Rick N6RK
And congrats on keeping your great remote station going for so long
That alone is a serious feat.
73, Jim K9YC
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On 7/28/2024 2:03 AM, Tom Boucher wrote:
Sorry Jim K9YC but it is incorrect to say that a loading coil at the base
of an antenna, which is less than a quarter wave, will affect the high
current point of the antenna. Assuming the coil is pure L with no
distributed C, the current exiting the coil
ith a nice Scotch.
73, Jim K9YC
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On 7/27/2024 1:36 PM, jim.thom jim.t...@telus.net wrote:
Is a CM choke required at the feedpoint ?
It CAN make the antenna a bit quieter on RX, and prevents the feedline
from acting as a radial, which could put RF in your shack if your
bonding is poor.
73, Jim K9YC
it in the shack. Loss is quite low in that size coax
on 160, but the feedpoint is a high current point, which makes it an
important part of the antenna; a loading coil at that point eliminates
part of the high-current, making the antenna a bit less efficient.
73, Jim K9YC
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weak point (and will melt down!).
Sounds like a great design! Thanks for your usual job of exposing the
fundamental problems with poorly designed products.
73, Jim K9YC
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27;ve gravitated to LP now, as it's less
painful and more productive. Still, a 160m QRP contact is always a thrill.
. .
72, Jim KK0U
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Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
about how that
voltage relates to the actual field strength (that is, how efficient it
is). I would expect the efficiency of a 160M mobile whip to be quite
low, so the actual noise is likely to be MUCH stronger than S7 received
by a decent fixed antenna.
73, Jim K9YC
_
regs made it a major noise source everywhere people live! Do
you remember "small government?"
73, Jim K9YC
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gle-transmitter QRP FD
entry last weekend. Both of us are experienced QRP ops.
73, Jim K9YC
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antenna has to be put up
before and taken down right after any contest
to avoid exciting the Condo board.
Whatever your passion is do it with enthusiasmfor self enjoyment..
Jim Fitton W1FMR, NH.
Jim
On Monday, July 1, 2024, 2:27:37 PM EDT, Jim Brown
wrote:
On 7/1/2024 10:57 AM, Radio
ears.
I still will often call an Expedition running 5W, and often make the
QSO. I'm guessing it's because they're in places that are remote enough
that noise levels are low.
73, Jim K9YC
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27;s 30-45 minutes, on 80, an hour or so, on 40, 2 hours.
Propagation to the west peaks AFTER sunrise, to the east, BEFORE sunset.
Those who shut down in the morning at the first sign of daylight are
badly misguided.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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For those of you that haven't seen this:
"Existing sailboat contract has been cancelled and there will be no January
2025 operation.
We are currently negotiating the contract for a large expedition vessel +
helicopter operation
to take place in 2026."
Jim, K1PX
_
nd
stations and achievements!
I'd love to see it. Hopefully it will be online.
73, Jim K9YC
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79 and 83 ?You guys ain't seen nothin yet !I turned 85 this week and oftensay -
wish I was 80 again !
Absolutely amazed at what happens with age.If only I realized that I would have
been more understanding with grandparents etc...
73,
Jim W1FMR
On Friday, May 10, 2024, 3:12:31 P
I use to protect it from damage
when trees sway in the wind, had broken, so I didn't get to try to work
George last night. I'll fix it today, and will try if George is still on
tonight.
73, Jim K9YC
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Great post, Wes. Propagation from here is even tougher than Tucson,
although I probably have less noise.
73, Jim K9YC
On 4/27/2024 2:14 PM, Wes Stewart via Topband wrote:
That is true. Just getting permission to go there is problematic. See:
https://www.dx-world.net/ft4gl-glorioso-island
ibute to their
costs. All I care about is LOTW, and my experience has been that if I
make a contribution, large or small, I'll get it.
73, Jim K9YC
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equired to approve the license.
But on this topic, the only think I know **for certain** is that I'm a
mental micro-midget compared to Maxwell.
Same here.
73, Jim K9YC
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one of their nulls -- where the carrier cancelled, the sidebands didn't.
73, Jim K9YC
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d vertical dipoles.
Ten years ago, I published this study showing that elevating vertical
antennas increases their radiation efficiency and can also lower the
angle of their main lobe in the vertical plane.
http://k9yc.com/VerticalHeight.pdf
73, Jim K9YC
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Searchable Arch
are), and can tell us what times of day to chase them.
Bottom line -- it's still critical to use DFing to get to the source,
but electronic noise sources have both drastically increased noise
levels around the world, and made finding the source more complicated.
efficiency in the desired
direction is the issue for TX.
73, Jim K9YC
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
ation, and even the horizontal direction at which signals arrive can
vary widely with time, based on propagation. Ken is a very smart
engineer, and a bunch of very smart engineers and operators are on his team.
73, Jim K9YC
On 4/3/2024 12:25 AM, Michael Tope wrote:
I just occurred to me th
, the noise made them deaf. No
different from here in NA.
73, Jim K9YC
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On 3/8/2024 6:02 PM, Frank W3LPL wrote:
(similar to NC0B's use of chicken wire on his verticals).
That was a brilliant idea that Rob published in "Ham Radio" in 1977, an
innovative adaptation of long-standing AM broadcast practice.
73, Jim K9YC
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to still be good in undeveloped
areas. It's in quadrants. As a young EE student, I had a summer gig
using them to plot contours for an application for a new station.
http://k9yc.com/FCC-GroundMap.zip
73, Jim K9YC
_
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to working CW 20+ years ago. I would support the endorsement
you suggest ONLY to those QSOs made on CW after about 2010.
73, Jim K9YC
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o In a Box would almost certainly have
been far more successful for at least one of them.
There is a saying here in the US about the understanding gained by
walking a mile in the other man's shoes. It may have come from our
European ancestors.
73, Jim K9YC
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Searchable
h the same TX and RX antennas that I still have.
What makes my path to EU so difficult is that it's both long and through
so much of the polar region. It is FAR easier for me to work AF on
topband (when there are stations there to work), even much longer
distances, like ZS.
73, Jim K9Y
ented "Radio In A Box," drastically reducing the cost and physical
difficulty of expeditions to islands.
I made several QSOs with the CB0 team this weekend during ARRL DX CW.
Great ops made it easy to work them. I did not work 160 this weekend --
storms have ta
To join, a user
outside the US must mail photocopies verifying their identity and their
license. In the US, ARRL is able to confirm identities and licenses by
accessing a public area of the FCC website.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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a guy in VE6 who has built a
spectacularly good remote station a few hundred miles north of the city
where he lives (forgot his call), and has documented it on his website.
These guys have my great respect for their significant engineering
achievements.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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On 1/30/2024 11:49 AM, Frank W3LPL wrote:
Northern hemisphere transatlantic propagation is far superior
in January compared to the equinoxes
'
Yep, and that's who the Rules are written for.
73, Jim K9YC
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Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband
s cohorts in the Pacific northwest who established the
Stew Perry for contests targeted to the rest of the world. And since the
Rules don't favor them nearly as strongly, the east coast cohort mostly
sits them out.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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Noise levels
have built here in several directions, including EU and JA.
73, Jim K9YC
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On 1/27/2024 12:17 PM, Ed Parish wrote:
Wow, was hearing N6RO at 0030Z here on east coast.
Check out Ken's antenna farm. It's a multi-multi superstation.
Four-square over very good ground.
http://www.jazznut.com/n6ro/n6rostart.htm
I have a 100 ft Tee over lousy ground. :)
73
On 1/27/2024 11:13 AM, cqtestk4xs--- via Topband wrote:
Was on and off for a few hours.
Miserable here in NorCal. Turned the rig off after 15 minutes.
73, Jim K9YC
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Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
rmance. Neither is how much
DX we work -- that's far more dependent on propagation, and on RX noise
at both ends of the QSO.
73, Jim K9YC
On 1/15/2024 11:13 AM, w3...@roadrunner.com wrote:
But based on 15 years of reading and personal observations with my 1/4
wave INV-L ( that has grown (
use a good RG11 that measures like Belden 8213 with
Amphenol 83-1SP connectors.
73, Jim K9YC
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Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
live on city or suburban lots, and have a
dozen or more neighbors within 500 ft, each with lots of noise sources,
some with solar systems. That was true of my QTH in Chicago, and there
were three apartment buildings across the alley!
73, Jim K9YC
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Searchable Archives:
e vertical.
Another observation -- during the daylight hours of 160M contests, I can
reliably work good stations up to about 800 miles with the Tee; with the
dipole, never even a QRZ? The logic is simple -- even at 120 ft, it's a
low dipole on 160M. :)
73, Jim K9YC
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Sear
en EU QSOs during solar minima years,
adding about 25 countries. My computer did not build my station, did not
put up my antennas, and I learned propagation through extensive study.
Sitting in VE9, is like running home from third base and thinking you
hit a home run.
Thanks for the RAC QSOs.
73
ion, probably 100-120 miles as the crow flies, and we listened on a
pretty good table radio (my grandfather was an EE). This was the '50s.
In those years, WLW and (I think) WOAI were the only 50kW clears with no
one else on their frequency in the US. Something like 30-40 years ago,
clear-c
;more is better" for on-ground
radials.
Another thing I learned from N6BT, who we all know has worked
extensively with verticals, is that to be reasonably efficient on
topband they must be at least 20 ft above the ground.
73, Jim K9YC
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what it is. RIP, George.
Jim K9YC
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On 12/27/2023 7:35 AM, Jon Zaimes, AA1K via Topband wrote:
Spacing is 1/4 wave.
I haven't looked at spacing for verticals, but optimum spacing for VE3DO
loops worked out to be 5/8 wavelengths, which I am lucky to have.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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had a stash of
low loss caps in the 2-3kV range, and used those in parallel, in a
weatherproof box.
73, Jim K9YC
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!
73,
Jim - WS6X
On Mon, Dec 18, 2023, 9:26 PM wrote:
> So you cannot detune a TX antenna in IL, just in Florida?
>
> JC
> Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
>
>
> _
> Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topba
Even more
different here in W6.
73, Jim K9YC
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ay on 160, a bit on 80. My Beverages work up to
20M -- when I first moved to W6, I had them a couple of years before I
found a place to turn the little 3-el SteppIR between the dense
redwoods, and used one extensively to listen to EU on 20.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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on't) with surrounding objects, including vegetation.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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On 12/8/2023 2:11 AM, Steve Ireland wrote:
I am going to Ellington’s Jazz Club in Perth
Good on you, Steve. At 82 and limited by COVID, I consume my jazz from
Armstrong to Prez to Bird to Coltrane, from the internet and my CD
collection.
73, Jim K9YC
_
Searchable Archives
tiple 160M verticals, changing
termination of the one I'm not feeding in the shack. Spent a LOT of time
modeling to get there.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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ions sells for $79 shows more than 50 dB of attenuation around 900 kHz.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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1.5kW to a 100 ft Tee and four Beverages, working east of Ohio was
a challenge.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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sharpest topband DXpeditioners, AA7JV, has been using FT8 a
lot for at least four years. George is both a first class op and one of
the smartest engineers I know of. I use "engineer" in the sense of
someone who uses science to solve problems, often in very innovative ways.
73
League by serious
weak-signal 6M ops.
73, Jim K9YC
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
during one or two nights of a 2-3 week expedition. George
realized the advantage of FT8, and developed a system to diplex both CW
and FT8 transmitters into the same TX antenna, and narrow bandpass
filters for RX antennas.
73, Jim K9YC
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That's fine if radio is your only interest in life. We're much happier
here.
73, Jim K9YC
On 11/17/2023 7:16 AM, mstang...@comcast.net wrote:
Jim,
You should have stayed in Illinois and bought some farmland downstate on the
Mississippi.
I moved from a city lot in New York to an a
and a two-element array of phased loops spaced
5/8 wavelength.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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use a new body, but the ticker is running
good.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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it is from anywhere in North America
around the Pacific. It's like running home from third base and thinking
you've hit a home run.
73, Jim K9YC
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
l up to 20 meters!
Same experience here. Before I had aluminum, I listened to EU on my EU
Beverage.
73, Jim K9YC
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
nator, abandoning the band at the
first sign of daylight, or failing to hit the band sooner before sunset.
For 160, it's at least a half hour, an hour on 80, two hours on 40.
73, Jim K9YC
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
Thank you George, Thank you Mike, Thank you RiB. Great to connect this morning
on TB.
73, safe travels, Jim Colletto, N6TQ
From: Topband on
behalf of GEORGE WALLNER
Sent: Thursday, November 2, 2023 9:13 PM
To: 'topband@contesting.com'
Subject: To
.
I'm using the DX Eng radial plate. Pricy, but 17 years later, not a
sniff of corrosion, 5 miles from the Pacific.
73, Jim K9YC
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
dards has significantly better on the eastern side of the pond.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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most everything that plugs into the mains. And enforcement
of EMC regulations is close to non-existent.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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the ancients had stolen all of our inventions.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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On 10/24/2023 9:15 AM, Paul Mcl wrote:
and he confirmed that was correct and he was using a large
rhombic by the ocean.
Consider the dimensions of a Rhombic for 160M, and that to benefit for
being "by the ocean," the QSO would have been long path.
73, Jim K9YC
_
On 10/23/2023 5:14 PM, Tree wrote:
Here in Oregon - the solar cycle has a huge impact on European propagation.
I typically go 4 years or so without hearing a peep from Europe during the
maximum.
My experience 600 miles south of you is the same.
73, Jim K9YC
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On 10/23/2023 9:38 AM, Roger Kennedy wrote:
Yes conditions continue to be really poor on 160m (wonder why?) . . .
We are approaching a solar maxima. Conditions on topband peaked at the
solar minima several years ago.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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cancellation. It's exactly the same as what we hear as "picket-fencing
at VHF.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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I was mistaken.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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His TX is NOT in EN52 -- he's VERY LOUD near San Francisco
73, Jim K9YC
_
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Hi Guys,
Have been looking for you B4 and around your sunset, but don't see you.
I usually have decent prop down that way.
73, Jim K9YC (Near San Francisco)
On 9/7/2023 2:54 PM, Don Greenbaum wrote:
E51D will QRT at 17:00 UTC Sept 8.
Tonight will be our last night on top band and it
On 8/30/2023 11:24 PM, uy0zg via Topband wrote:
War does not change people at all.
Here, it has strengthened the Ukrainian people.
I will not work RU stations until this aggression ends.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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Jim not a bad count.
Here I am at a count of 86. Been working at it for 38 years here in the city on
a tiny lot.
Working 100 for DXCC on 160m better happen before I die. Age here is 70.
Its what it is.
Jim Borowski K9TF
jim.gmfo...@gmail.com
_
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rom my QTH near San Francisco, once I get past VE, KH6, KL7, KP2,
KP4,XE, CM, and a few Caribbean islands, the average distance is 5,000
miles. My current count is 171 in 16 years after moving here in 2006.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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t vertical arrival angles vary with propagation.
I don't know enough about 160M propagation to know whether paths are
always reciprocal -- that is, if a signal ARRIVES at a high angle, will
my most efficient transmit path to him be at that high angle.
73, Jim K9YC
beat it.
The first three hours of topband contests are in daylight here, and the
Tee can consistently work good stations out to 800 miles. That
horizontal antenna never even got a QRZ?
73, Jim K9YC
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
is a quarter-wave. Higher
reduces upward radiation, lower increases ground loss. This study was
peer reviewed.
73, Jim K9YC
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
nd the shield at the frequency of
interest, Al shields and CCS centers can be fairly lossy below VHF. CATV
coax tends to be much cheaper than the coax designed for transmitting,
thanks both the the lower cost construction and the extremely large
market for it.
73, Jim K9YC
_
On 8/4/2023 7:42 AM, Mike Waters wrote:
If you don't already have it,*Low Band DXing* by John Devoldere, ON4UN
(published by the ARRL) has a very informative chapter about receiving
antennas. Most of it is about Beverage antennas. Highly recommended.
Yes, highly recommended.
73, Jim
the elevation where they started. They
roughly follow that terrain, but one is about 15 ft high where it goes
over the creek. They both work fine, only issue is noise from solar
systems in neighbor homes.
73, Jim K9YC
_
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Especially with keyers that won't let you turn Iambic off!
73, Jim K9YC
_
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as from US stations west of the Rockies.
73, Jim
_
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