Re: Topband: TO7CC
On 2/15/2014 10:36 PM, Jeff Blaine wrote: I worked them also tonight about the same time as this guy; maybe a bit earlier. They were on 3510 this morning, and eventually their signal built to the level where I called them. Even when I worked them, they were not very loud. Club Log says I'm in the log. 73, Jim K9YC _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals
On 2/15/2014 5:19 PM, Mike Waters wrote: W3LPL is S9+, but he had a lot of trouble hearing my 1500 watts. Odd. Quoting from the contest rules: = = = = 1.3.1. W/VE amateurs work as many DX stations in as many DXCC entities as possible on the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands. 1.3.2. DX stations work as many W/VE stations in as many of the 48 contiguous states and provinces as possible. = = = = = In other words, W/VE works the rest of the world. ONLY. The rest of the world works W/VE. ONLY. This is DX contest. ONLY. 73, Jim K9YC _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals
I'll take your word (and Tom's) for it. But that's not how I interpreted what Bruce states there. QSO Points: 3 points per QSO evidently should say: QSO Points: 3 points per DX QSO. Thanks. 73, Mike Hi Mike I think those guys are wrong. I have been doing this contest for 43 years from Alaska and we work USA all day long and they answer us! Please call us anytime you want but just once per band. In fact if you can call us right now using a JA callsign it would fall in line with all the other JA's calling us. Contesting from Alaska is hard. 73 Rich KL7RA _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals
BUT Alaska is a DX country per the rules! On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 3:44 AM, KL7RA kl...@ptialaska.net wrote: I'll take your word (and Tom's) for it. But that's not how I interpreted what Bruce states there. QSO Points: 3 points per QSO evidently should say: QSO Points: 3 points per DX QSO. Thanks. 73, Mike Hi Mike I think those guys are wrong. I have been doing this contest for 43 years from Alaska and we work USA all day long and they answer us! Please call us anytime you want but just once per band. In fact if you can call us right now using a JA callsign it would fall in line with all the other JA's calling us. Contesting from Alaska is hard. 73 Rich KL7RA _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband -- 73 Joel W5ZN www.w5zn.org _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals
1.2. Definitions 1.2.1. W/VE stations are those operating in the following locations: 1.2.1.1. The United States and the District of Columbia with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 3:44 AM, KL7RA kl...@ptialaska.net wrote: I'll take your word (and Tom's) for it. But that's not how I interpreted what Bruce states there. QSO Points: 3 points per QSO evidently should say: QSO Points: 3 points per DX QSO. Thanks. 73, Mike Hi Mike I think those guys are wrong. I have been doing this contest for 43 years from Alaska and we work USA all day long and they answer us! Please call us anytime you want but just once per band. In fact if you can call us right now using a JA callsign it would fall in line with all the other JA's calling us. Contesting from Alaska is hard. 73 Rich KL7RA _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband -- 73 Joel W5ZN www.w5zn.org _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals
BUT Alaska is a DX country per the rules! That can't be true Joel. Why are the JA's calling us continuously if we are DX? Huh? How about that?? Please -- this is the end of this thread of zero (0) value before N6TR starts the head chopping machine. I was just wasting time hoping topband would open to the USA and we can fill in some W0 and W7 mults. Band is completely absorbed here at 1am local, but it's early yet. Last night we had some great gray line to east coast and 4's/5's at their sunrise. Thanks. 73 RichKL7RA 5nn kw - Original Message - From: Joel Harrison w...@w5zn.org To: KL7RA kl...@ptialaska.net Cc: Mike Waters mikew...@gmail.com; Merv Schweigert k...@flex.com; topband topband@contesting.com Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2014 12:47 AM Subject: Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals BUT Alaska is a DX country per the rules! On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 3:44 AM, KL7RA kl...@ptialaska.net wrote: I'll take your word (and Tom's) for it. But that's not how I interpreted what Bruce states there. QSO Points: 3 points per QSO evidently should say: QSO Points: 3 points per DX QSO. Thanks. 73, Mike Hi Mike I think those guys are wrong. I have been doing this contest for 43 years from Alaska and we work USA all day long and they answer us! Please call us anytime you want but just once per band. In fact if you can call us right now using a JA callsign it would fall in line with all the other JA's calling us. Contesting from Alaska is hard. 73 Rich KL7RA _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband -- 73 Joel W5ZN www.w5zn.org _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals
I suspect there were several other reasons they did not come back to your 1500 watts! I suspect during a DX contest like the ARRL DX CW Contest most US or VE stations will not reply to other US or VE station's first several calls and put a DX emphasis on the next several CQ tests. Also I suspect the 160 ops at W3LPL were listening toward EU, AF, SA or the Caribbean for QSOs with points. Remember US and VE stations work DX for three points and any other stations from VE or the United States count as ZERO in the contest. On my way back to W3LPL as one of the 10 meter ops. Bernie McClenny, W3UR Editor of The Daily DX, The Weekly DX and How's DX? Two week trial - http://www.dailydx.com/trial.html https://twitter.com/dailydx 410-489-6518 On Feb 15, 2014, at 8:19 PM, Mike Waters mikew...@gmail.com wrote: I didn't notice that the K index jumped to 5 until after I posted this. That doesn't help. But the 3 or 4 stations that I hear calling CQ are quite strong (S9+) in SW Missouri. W3LPL is S9+, but he had a lot of trouble hearing my 1500 watts. Odd. 73, MIke www.w0btu.com On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 7:09 PM, MU 4CX250B 4cx2...@miamioh.edu wrote: Band has been poor here in NM. Last night didn't hear Europe at all, and only about 10 SA and Carrib. Stations. This morning, opening into Asia was marginal, with only a handful of weak JAs. Even Kim HL5IVL, who usually blasts through here, was barely out if the noise. 73, Jim W8ZR Sent from my iPhone On Feb 15, 2014, at 5:17 PM, Mike Waters mikew...@gmail.com wrote: There's a contest in progress --the ARRL Int. DX CW-- but you wouldn't know it from listening on 160. Where is everyone? The only two stations on 160 calling CQ TEST are K3LR and W3LPL. 73, Mike www.w0btu.com _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals
Gary and Kathleen Pearse pea...@gci.net wrote: Still poor in central KL7. Maybe later. Aurora’s heating up, so maybe never: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/index.html It was absolutely dead here in the UK last night. I had expected to bag a couple more US states. Other bands were showing signs of auroral flutter. -- Brian D G3VGZ _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals
Per the rules: 1.2. Definitions 1.2.1. W/VE stations are those operating in the following locations: 1.2.1.1. The United States and the District of Columbia with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii 73 Peter -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Joel Harrison Sent: Sonntag, 16. Februar 2014 10:48 To: KL7RA Cc: Mike Waters; topband; Merv Schweigert Subject: Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals BUT Alaska is a DX country per the rules! _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Contest in progress - few signals
W3UR wrote: Remember US and VE stations work DX for three points and any other stations from VE or the United States count as ZERO in the contest. Not only that but most logging programs won't even allow you to log W/VE in ARRL DX so you will not be in my log even if I answer. I know the local guys who call think they are doing you a favor but they are not. Especially annoying are those who call while you're running DX and cover up the weaker DX. Also I hate struggling for minutes with a whisper weak signal only to discover it's actually a US station off the back or side of my EU Beverage. The ARRL DX has become one of my favorite contests because the band isn't jammed with US stations calling CQ and covering DX. Unfortunately conditions were so poor Friday night that I gave up before 0300z with only a little over 30 QSOs in the log. This was probably some of the WORST conditions I've ever seen. As I write this Sunday morning, I see W1UE (multi-multi at W1KM) only has 117 QSOs on 160 for the entire weekend. That's BORING and it's not even in Oregon. :-) Please do us all a favor and READ THE RULES next time! 73, Bill W4ZV _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Update from AG6X shunt feed project
Wow!, that's perfect, Carl!! That should result in better than 1.2:1 load VSWR!! No wonder you see a flat line at the transmitter end! Looks like either 90' or 67' would be good tap points, but 67' is better! Can't do much better than 42 ohms feed-point resistance! If you're seeing a flat line from 1800-1850 that's pretty good bandwidth!! I'm not sure how much you might gain by adding additional gamma wires, The loss in 67' of 14 ga wire can't be that great! The impedance of your gamma may decrease with the additional wires, requiring a larger capacitor to tune it! There's a lot to be said for If it ain't broke -don't fix lt! Regarding the gamma capacitor - if I did my quick back of the envelope 'rithmatic right, the 140 pf of capacitance should have about 36.2 ohms of capacitive reactance at 1.8 MHz. Now, if you are delivering 1500 watts of RF into a 42 ohm load, that's a little less than 6 amps RMS of RF current. That would result in an RMS voltage of about 220 volts across the 140 pF, or about 330 volts peak. So your 4500 volt Cardwell should have no problems dealing with it. No need to use your vacuum variable! If you add additional gamma wires, you may need something a bit larger than your 160 pF capacitor, but the voltage requirements wouldn't increase significantly, if at all. Of course whatever capacitor you use, you, of course, need to protect it from moisture, insects etc. Sounds like you have it working well, and you can concentrate on workin' on your radial field. Of course, as you improve the radials, you may see that 42 ohm resistance drop a little and your BW decrease as you reduce the ground losses and the Q of you antenna system increases! I've had that experience in the past. Anyway, Carl, sounds like you have it playing pretty well! Have fun! 73, Charlie, K4OTV -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Carl Braun Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2014 9:03 PM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Topband: Update from AG6X shunt feed project All I decided to take a chance at tapping the tower at 67' and apply some series capacitance to see how the structure would work there before tapping it at the 90' level. Here is what I found: The gamma arm spacing is at 33 and with 140pf in series I see 42+j0 ohms at the feedpoint. Inside the shack at the end of the LMR 400 I see basically FLAT SWR from 1800 to 1850 and 1.5:1 at 1865...with the cap fixed at 140pf. All of that with my skimpy (single 14AWG) gamma wire. Tomorrow I plan on dropping the tower again to add the additional 2 or 3 wires to create the gamma wire cage. My current PVC standoffs have been modified to accept three gamma wires spaced approx. 10 apart (though I'm only using one now as I said before). I'm assuming this MAY provide me with a couple more ohms getting me closer to the magical 50 but bandwidth is what I'm truly after. If I still need a few more ohms I may extend the gamma and standoff arms out another 6 or so...which would be the MAX reach without installing new arm and standoffs. So...with these low capacitance requirements (140pf now and possibly less with the multiple gamma wires) will I still need to scrounge my vacuum variable out of storage or will my 4500V Cardwell cap get the job done at 1500W? Thanks to all who offered their advice and look for an update from me after the gamma cage is assembled and additional radials are installed Carl AG6X _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Update from AG6X shunt feed project
Thanks Charlie I haven't transmitted on the antenna yet but I did hear KH6XX, KH6LC and WL7E this morning along with a bunch of stateside guys participating in the contest. N7GP and K7FA in AZ were +20 this morning and N7XM was loud too. I'm looking forward to seeing improvements with additional radials but I do anticipate the R dropping too. If things improve too much I may be moving the gamma arm up to the 90' level yet. More later. Thanks again Carl AG6X Sent from my iPhone On Feb 16, 2014, at 7:37 AM, Charlie Cunningham charlie-cunning...@nc.rr.com wrote: Wow!, that's perfect, Carl!! That should result in better than 1.2:1 load VSWR!! No wonder you see a flat line at the transmitter end! Looks like either 90' or 67' would be good tap points, but 67' is better! Can't do much better than 42 ohms feed-point resistance! If you're seeing a flat line from 1800-1850 that's pretty good bandwidth!! I'm not sure how much you might gain by adding additional gamma wires, The loss in 67' of 14 ga wire can't be that great! The impedance of your gamma may decrease with the additional wires, requiring a larger capacitor to tune it! There's a lot to be said for If it ain't broke -don't fix lt! Regarding the gamma capacitor - if I did my quick back of the envelope 'rithmatic right, the 140 pf of capacitance should have about 36.2 ohms of capacitive reactance at 1.8 MHz. Now, if you are delivering 1500 watts of RF into a 42 ohm load, that's a little less than 6 amps RMS of RF current. That would result in an RMS voltage of about 220 volts across the 140 pF, or about 330 volts peak. So your 4500 volt Cardwell should have no problems dealing with it. No need to use your vacuum variable! If you add additional gamma wires, you may need something a bit larger than your 160 pF capacitor, but the voltage requirements wouldn't increase significantly, if at all. Of course whatever capacitor you use, you, of course, need to protect it from moisture, insects etc. Sounds like you have it working well, and you can concentrate on workin' on your radial field. Of course, as you improve the radials, you may see that 42 ohm resistance drop a little and your BW decrease as you reduce the ground losses and the Q of you antenna system increases! I've had that experience in the past. Anyway, Carl, sounds like you have it playing pretty well! Have fun! 73, Charlie, K4OTV -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Carl Braun Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2014 9:03 PM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Topband: Update from AG6X shunt feed project All I decided to take a chance at tapping the tower at 67' and apply some series capacitance to see how the structure would work there before tapping it at the 90' level. Here is what I found: The gamma arm spacing is at 33 and with 140pf in series I see 42+j0 ohms at the feedpoint. Inside the shack at the end of the LMR 400 I see basically FLAT SWR from 1800 to 1850 and 1.5:1 at 1865...with the cap fixed at 140pf. All of that with my skimpy (single 14AWG) gamma wire. Tomorrow I plan on dropping the tower again to add the additional 2 or 3 wires to create the gamma wire cage. My current PVC standoffs have been modified to accept three gamma wires spaced approx. 10 apart (though I'm only using one now as I said before). I'm assuming this MAY provide me with a couple more ohms getting me closer to the magical 50 but bandwidth is what I'm truly after. If I still need a few more ohms I may extend the gamma and standoff arms out another 6 or so...which would be the MAX reach without installing new arm and standoffs. So...with these low capacitance requirements (140pf now and possibly less with the multiple gamma wires) will I still need to scrounge my vacuum variable out of storage or will my 4500V Cardwell cap get the job done at 1500W? Thanks to all who offered their advice and look for an update from me after the gamma cage is assembled and additional radials are installed Carl AG6X _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: Update from AG6X shunt feed project
FB, Carl! Well, if you're hearing well on that tall vertical, the noise environment must not be too bad in your area, It's pretty bad here in Raleigh, so I had to resort to terminated receiving loops for 160 - and they help on 80 also. Yes, I had the same thought about moving that tap point higher as you improve your radial field. After all, if that 68 ohms drops to 60 ohms that's still 1.2:1 VSWR, but the BW might be a little better. You might want to wait until AFTER you've done the radial improvements before adding the additional gamma wires and selecting the tuning capacitor. Sounds like your hard work is paying off! FB on the KH6s! I've worked a number of them from here in Raleigh, but that's a tougher path than CA-KH6! Keep at it! Sounds like it's coming together and playing well! Have a good day! 73, Charlie, K4OTV -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Carl Braun Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2014 10:49 AM To: Charlie Cunningham Cc: topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: Update from AG6X shunt feed project Thanks Charlie I haven't transmitted on the antenna yet but I did hear KH6XX, KH6LC and WL7E this morning along with a bunch of stateside guys participating in the contest. N7GP and K7FA in AZ were +20 this morning and N7XM was loud too. I'm looking forward to seeing improvements with additional radials but I do anticipate the R dropping too. If things improve too much I may be moving the gamma arm up to the 90' level yet. More later. Thanks again Carl AG6X Sent from my iPhone On Feb 16, 2014, at 7:37 AM, Charlie Cunningham charlie-cunning...@nc.rr.com wrote: Wow!, that's perfect, Carl!! That should result in better than 1.2:1 load VSWR!! No wonder you see a flat line at the transmitter end! Looks like either 90' or 67' would be good tap points, but 67' is better! Can't do much better than 42 ohms feed-point resistance! If you're seeing a flat line from 1800-1850 that's pretty good bandwidth!! I'm not sure how much you might gain by adding additional gamma wires, The loss in 67' of 14 ga wire can't be that great! The impedance of your gamma may decrease with the additional wires, requiring a larger capacitor to tune it! There's a lot to be said for If it ain't broke -don't fix lt! Regarding the gamma capacitor - if I did my quick back of the envelope 'rithmatic right, the 140 pf of capacitance should have about 36.2 ohms of capacitive reactance at 1.8 MHz. Now, if you are delivering 1500 watts of RF into a 42 ohm load, that's a little less than 6 amps RMS of RF current. That would result in an RMS voltage of about 220 volts across the 140 pF, or about 330 volts peak. So your 4500 volt Cardwell should have no problems dealing with it. No need to use your vacuum variable! If you add additional gamma wires, you may need something a bit larger than your 160 pF capacitor, but the voltage requirements wouldn't increase significantly, if at all. Of course whatever capacitor you use, you, of course, need to protect it from moisture, insects etc. Sounds like you have it working well, and you can concentrate on workin' on your radial field. Of course, as you improve the radials, you may see that 42 ohm resistance drop a little and your BW decrease as you reduce the ground losses and the Q of you antenna system increases! I've had that experience in the past. Anyway, Carl, sounds like you have it playing pretty well! Have fun! 73, Charlie, K4OTV -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Carl Braun Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2014 9:03 PM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Topband: Update from AG6X shunt feed project All I decided to take a chance at tapping the tower at 67' and apply some series capacitance to see how the structure would work there before tapping it at the 90' level. Here is what I found: The gamma arm spacing is at 33 and with 140pf in series I see 42+j0 ohms at the feedpoint. Inside the shack at the end of the LMR 400 I see basically FLAT SWR from 1800 to 1850 and 1.5:1 at 1865...with the cap fixed at 140pf. All of that with my skimpy (single 14AWG) gamma wire. Tomorrow I plan on dropping the tower again to add the additional 2 or 3 wires to create the gamma wire cage. My current PVC standoffs have been modified to accept three gamma wires spaced approx. 10 apart (though I'm only using one now as I said before). I'm assuming this MAY provide me with a couple more ohms getting me closer to the magical 50 but bandwidth is what I'm truly after. If I still need a few more ohms I may extend the gamma and standoff arms out another 6 or so...which would be the MAX reach without installing new arm and standoffs. So...with these low capacitance requirements (140pf now and possibly less with the multiple gamma wires) will I still need to scrounge my vacuum
