Topband: DXCC 160m score

[radioamatér]

Dear folks,
I was alerted ongoing discussion around my score on the 160m band. Mainly I am frustrated 
by questioning of the longest-running DXCC program and the work of the people at the ARRL 
desk. It is but a matter of those who doubt it. I personally spent over 55 years on HF 
bands and on the TopBand mainly. I was quite respected low bands DXer as wrote me Martti, 
OH2BH in his observations to the events of August 2016 / see further /. I don't want to 
bore much but there is a story. I had got my the first DXCC 160m award on my call OK1RD 
with approved score there 326 countries in 2008. Since 2009 year I went to EME on 6m and 
further on 2m band and was occasionally active on 160m band for a "new one" 
only. A few years after when I reached 100 DXCC countries on 2m band I asked for the DXCC 
award for this band. Unfortunately I was not in good relation with that time DXCC award 
manager NC1L ( SK nw ) and he refused awarding me on 2m DXCC award on call OK1RD. The 
time is running and suddenly
 Mr. Nigel Cawthorne, G3TXF a avid the DX expeditions man published this article         " 
http://www.g3txf.com/…ake-C21.html "  in August 
2016.
He claims in his article that I (OK1RD ) fabricated evidence of C21XF QSL card for the propose to get C21 country confirmed on the 160m band. It started up an offensive against me with the purpose to destroy my over 55 years activity on the TopBand. 
I have got enormous numbers of messages in which even well known HAMs called me swindler. Therefore I started investigation how this case could even happen. My standpoints and facts have been already published.  But nobody trusted my arguments so I decided to apply for DXCC 160m a new award on my other call OK1YQ to clean up my name. Thereby I became among the top of the TopBand DXers again and it triggered a wave of hates and doubts again. The ARRL DX desk had no other choice then to initiate an auditing process of the me submitted according to the article 13 of the  DXCC rules. See below :

13.  DXCC Audit Process: In order to maintain continuing program integrity and 
for quality control purposes, DXCC routinely conducts audits of credits claimed 
for DXCC awards. To verify the authenticity of the QSOs claimed, audits may be 
conducted on claims for QSO credits for current applications, or credits 
already in a DXCC award account. Audits may include, but are not limited to:
    Checking online logs (preliminary check);
    Contacting DX stations for log extracts;
    Contacting QSL managers for log extracts; and
    Verifying credits submitted via Logbook of the World (LoTW)
Audits are generally conducted on a random basis. Response to audit requests to 
DXCC applicants are required. Failure, or refusal, to respond to these requests 
may result in removal of the credits requested by DXCC and/or removal of the 
awards pertaining to the audit.  Events may also lead to disqualification from 
the DXCC program.
Costs for postage, by a secure and traceable method to, and from, DXCC will be 
covered by the ARRL Desk.
Audits that reveal discrepancies may lead to an investigation by the Awards 
Committee.
All my 343 QSLs passed through in details this process and I am convinced 
nobody of you who challenge my score on 160m band had to pass this sort of 
audit. So please stop useless discussion on this unquestionable fact.
I think there are more important matters concerning our hobby and the TopBand 
mainly. For example I tell you story :
I met one HAM with call OK7.. who during 10 years of activity on the 
TopBand reached score on the 160m DXCC standings which-if I remember well- I 
reached this score after 40 years my activity on this band. He sneered at me 
that I invested during almost 6 decades a lot of money and personal effort and 
he told that it is much easy to hire a remote QTH site on the other continents 
and then is quite easy to work for e.g. Pacific area than for us in EU . This 
one is destroying our hobby now in the future.
So I would recommend to those who question the work of the ARRL to turn the 
attention to this problem.
Let me wish all of you here a steady health in 2019 and especially for us over 
70 mainly.
73 Jarda, OK1YQ, OK1RD, OK7XX
_
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Re: Topband: 30 Ja's worked today on 160

[AB2E Darrell]

Guy,
Good observations and I agree with you.
CWops is growing, and overall CW contest activity seems to be up.

I would bring up another reason for declining JA participation in general. 
Their  population as a nation is declining due to plummeting birth rates and by 
2050 will drop to 92 million from the current 127 million 
http://www.ipss.go.jp/pp-newest/e/ppfj02/ppfj02.pdf . There are likely other 
reasons, but this could certainly be a factor.
73 Darrell AB2E



From: Topband  on behalf of Guy Olinger K2AV 

Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2019 10:03 AM
To: David Raymond
Cc: TopBand List; Herbert Schoenbohm
Subject: Re: Topband: 30 Ja's worked today on 160

"Nobody on CW" is probably answered better by few people listening and
most not having implemented an automated way to pick up on CW CQ's.
That's sort of built into the usual ham shack blend of FT8 and logging
programs.

In the contests, anyway, even RTTY tests and the recent RTTY roundup
with FT8 admitted to the fray, I see no diminution of participation,
the contests seem to be slowly growing.

The CWOPS weekly hour-long CW contests keep growing, with member ID
numbers well into the 2K range. It seems to have sharply caught on in
the last few years.

73, Guy K2AV

On Sat, Jan 12, 2019 at 9:32 AM  wrote:
>
> It's no wonder when I get on mornings with good conditions there are few, if
> any, JA friends to work on CW.
>
> 73. . .Dave, W0FLS
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Herbert Schoenbohm
> Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2019 6:49 AM
> To: TopBand List
> Subject: Topband: 30 Ja's worked today on 160
>
> Using FT-8 with a split 1840/1908 I was able to work over 30 JA's via a
> skewed SW path today.
>
> Amazing conditions and less polar absorption this direction.
>
> Herb, KV4FZ
> _
> Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
>
> _
> Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
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Re: Topband: 30 Ja's worked today on 160

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

"Nobody on CW" is probably answered better by few people listening and
most not having implemented an automated way to pick up on CW CQ's.
That's sort of built into the usual ham shack blend of FT8 and logging
programs.

In the contests, anyway, even RTTY tests and the recent RTTY roundup
with FT8 admitted to the fray, I see no diminution of participation,
the contests seem to be slowly growing.

The CWOPS weekly hour-long CW contests keep growing, with member ID
numbers well into the 2K range. It seems to have sharply caught on in
the last few years.

73, Guy K2AV

On Sat, Jan 12, 2019 at 9:32 AM  wrote:
>
> It's no wonder when I get on mornings with good conditions there are few, if
> any, JA friends to work on CW.
>
> 73. . .Dave, W0FLS
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Herbert Schoenbohm
> Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2019 6:49 AM
> To: TopBand List
> Subject: Topband: 30 Ja's worked today on 160
>
> Using FT-8 with a split 1840/1908 I was able to work over 30 JA's via a
> skewed SW path today.
>
> Amazing conditions and less polar absorption this direction.
>
> Herb, KV4FZ
> _
> Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
>
> _
> Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
_
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Re: Topband: Inverted L improvement question

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

Given caveats stated below, the short answer is I'd bet with odds it
wouldn't make much difference.

Long answer:

One of the benefits of an end-fed half-wave L on 80 meters is the hi Z
feed, tolerating ghastly ground systems, and having all the current up high
at the bend. Arguably, this makes the 80EFHWL the best single wire 80m
antenna for a mix of DX and local (therefore also contesting) operation.
The huge drawback for most is the need for an out-in-in-the-weather tuning
device as you cannot feed it directly with a run of coax. It also is fairly
narrow band, except for CW only operators. Those who need the entire band
need to so something not-simple at the ground feed to cover a significant
range of the 75-80m band.

The half square is two of those end to end, coming together in the middle
of the 1/2 wave horizontal. On 160 that's 539 feet of wire up in the air.
If you got the space and support for that and you want that broadside
direction, that's going to be a killer antenna.

Many of the half-square illustrations show a low Z feed at one of the upper
corners. That would avoid some of the issues at ground with high Z feed.
BUT the feedline would need to be broken up at the feed and halfway going
down, and at the bottom with VERY robust common mode current blocks. See
some of K9YC's new RG400 on #31 ferrite choke designs with 15K+ ohms of
blocking for something that would actually do the job with very minimal
power loss.

The other answer, as you have implemented to to deal with the high
impedance feed at one of the ends. This requires that at the end the
antenna looks like an electrical full wave wire.

Equal coils at the corners have sometimes allowed smaller physical
dimensions. But as soon as you start modifying the antenna, then questions
emerge which need modeling to answer. So there is no certain
one-size-fits-all answer to your question without model analysis of the
not-quite-half-square you have in the air. Versions with modified
dimensions have to be carefully designed to avoid dropping back into ground
involvement and possible related losses.

Given your 2000 ohm end to ground feed Z of the "modified" version you have
up, you have PROBABLY managed to avoid issues that would kill its ground
independence.

To answer the question far more completely, model it along with any
antennas and conductors within a 500 foot radius, INCLUDING TOWERS AND
FEEDLINES.

The half square is a great idea that can be screwed up with less than full
implementation, or like many other excellent designs, can be totally
screwed to the wall by unconsidered nearby conductors.

73, Guy K2AV.

On Tue, Jan 8, 2019 at 3:45 PM Dick Bingham  wrote:

> Hello Guy (and the group)
>
> I just finished reading your reply/observations on 160-Meter verticals -
> L's, etc - and wonder what your thoughts may be for the so-called
> "Half-Square" antenna (H-S) where the high current point is at the top of
> the array and the antenna is high-voltage-fed at the bottom.
>
> I have a terrible QTH situation where ground conditions are very poor -
> basically river deposited gravel
> and sand sub-soaked by glacier and snow-melt water covered by several feet
> of organic matter. It is an electrically quiet area - S-0 or so - with
> noise basically all propagated non-man made noise.
>
> The H-S antenna I use (actually a sloping H-S with top phasing wire at
> ~90-feet) has 5ea 136-foot radials and performs very well in contests using
> 100-watts or less.
>
> My question is, given the low current at-ground feed point with Zo ~
> 2000-ohms or so, what sort of improvement might one expect if the radial
> field was significantly improved?
>
> 73 to all -  Dick/w7wkr at CN98pi
> =
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2019 12:07:16 -0500
> From: Guy Olinger K2AV 
> To: Todd Goins 
> Cc: TopBand List 
> Subject: Re: Topband: Inverted L improvement question
> Message-ID:
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Apologies to all for delay in response.
>
> Losses related to ground and close dielectric materials remain the
> single monster gorilla in the room for improving TX performance of
> vertical antennas
> BIG SNIP
>
>
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector

Re: Topband: 30 Ja's worked today on 160

[daraymond]

It's no wonder when I get on mornings with good conditions there are few, if 
any, JA friends to work on CW.


73. . .Dave, W0FLS

-Original Message- 
From: Herbert Schoenbohm

Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2019 6:49 AM
To: TopBand List
Subject: Topband: 30 Ja's worked today on 160

Using FT-8 with a split 1840/1908 I was able to work over 30 JA's via a
skewed SW path today.

Amazing conditions and less polar absorption this direction.

Herb, KV4FZ
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector 


_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector

Topband: 30 Ja's worked today on 160

[Herbert Schoenbohm]

Using FT-8 with a split 1840/1908 I was able to work over 30 JA's via a
skewed SW path today.

Amazing conditions and less polar absorption this direction.

Herb, KV4FZ
_
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector

Re: Topband: comparison of SNR of two antennas with 2 channel SDR and Linrad

[P H via Topband]

Please ignore this thread. My message has been deformed,
Working link to the video is in another one thread: 
Topband: 2 channel SDR, Linrad, comparison of SNR of two antennas.
_
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