Re: Topband: My new 9 Circle works great!
The YCCC-9 design by John, W1FV is an outstanding performer. I have had one installed at W5ZN for several years now and have documented direct comparisons with my HiZ-8 160 and BSEF-8 160 arrays plus my four 580 ft Beverages. While the HiZ-8 (200 ft diameter on 160) is the clear top performer with the BSEF-160 (350 ft diameter) a close second, the performance of the YCCC-9 is third only to those two and is equivalent or better than my Beverages. The amazing thing with the YCCC-9 is its small footprint, only 120 ft in diameter. As John has noted, the 120 ft diameter spacing has only a minor effect on 160 but improves 80 meters. It is an amazing performer on 80 meters and is equal in performance to my BSEF-8 80 meter array which is 180 ft diameter (I do not have an 80 meter HiZ-8). For the small footprint plus the ability to use it on 3 bands it is impressive. Prior to this year I ran the original combiner board and amplifiers. Over the summer I had boards fabricated from Steve, VE6WZ's excellent details and assembled a combiner with the Murata chokes on the board in order to eliminate the external chokes. I see no difference in performance. I also assembled new amplifiers based on Steve's layout. So, if you do not have room for the top performing HiZ-8 or the BSEF-8 and 580 ft Beverage but can accommodate a 120 ft diameter circle this IS your RX antenna for 360 degree coverage! If you can only spare 120 ft in one direction, say to Europe, then utilizing only three verticals will fix you up. Thanks to John, W1FV, for his design and development of this array and for Steve, VE6WZ for providing additional info and options. It is also good to see the PI4CC folks pick this up and provide components as well. 73 Joel W5ZN _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: ARRL 160
I tried that when I held the call ZF2ET and on that particular suffix i think it might have been a good thing. I went back and forth on doing it or not but always paused slightly when sending by hand. 73…Stan ~ ZF9CW > On Dec 7, 2022, at 6:49 PM, Joe wrote: > > I'll differ on the half space thing. > > I cut my repeat needs by at LEAST 75% and still get spotted by the RBN all > the time, (well not much on 160 he he he) > > But on bands where i got good signals my repeats are far less when I use > > W9~E~T than when I use W9ET > > Joe WB9SBD > >> On 12/7/2022 9:13 AM, Mike VE9AA ve...@nbnet.nb.ca wrote: >> Lee et al, >> >> Which just goes to further prove my point. The RBN (& skimmers) are truly >> wonderful tech, but they are not perfect even if your CW is (or nearly so). >> >> Please do not be surprised by the occasional bust or dupe if you are doing >> something "weird" with your callsign by adding 1/2 spaces, slowing letters >> down and whatnot. >> >> Human brains may (or maynot) be able to deal with that somewhat better (up >> for debate - I personally dislike it done to most callsigns), but computers >> don't 'know' what the intent is with that type of sending. >> >> VE9AA >> >> == >> I get spotted as KX4M and KK4TT all the time. It does not matter if I send by >> hand or through N1MM / Winkeyer. >> >> 73 de Lee KX4TT >> >> >> >> On Wednesday, December 7, 2022, 08:48:47 AM EST, wrote: >> >> Hi Ron, >> >> The wrong call sign spotting and "run of dupes" happens a few times a >> year to me. >> Bob, KQ2M >> _ >> Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector >> > _ > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: ARRL 160
Conditions from here in the Midwest have been poor virtually the entire season so far, not just the contest. From N0NI we worked exactly one JA during the contest (JA3YBK) and that was a big struggle which took several minutes to complete with good TX and RX antennas. Thus far this season I have exactly 10 JA QSOs in the log, the first QSO being 22 September with JA1LZR who has been QRV faithfully most every morning this season (and undetectable most). On a typical season I would have scores of JA QSOs logged by now. I'm in my fourth decade on TB as a DXer and conditions from Midwest NA this season have been as poor as I can recall. . . to all parts of the globe, morning and night. Combining that with the abandonment and dearth of CW activity makes for a lot of empty CQs and listening to noise. At some point. sooner or later, conditions will change for the better and hopefully that might encourage CW activity to return to some degree. . . we can only hope. In the meantime its tough going for CW topbanders. 73 and Seasons Greetings to all. . . Dave, W0FLS On 12/7/2022 3:30 PM, Richard Karlquist wrote: >From central California, perennial big guns JA3YBK and JA5DQH were way over S9 in the ARRL 160 about 2 hours before SR. They had big pileups, so I am thinking lots of stations were hearing them, whether or not they could work them. --- Rick Karlquist N6RK On 2022-12-07 10:13, Jim Brown wrote: On 12/7/2022 6:57 AM, Roger Kennedy wrote: Well given that several people have posted that conditions were poor, I guess I should be happy that I managed to work 26 NA stations in the hour I spent on the band - even more so as I have this horrendous wideband noise on 160 at the moment! ARRL 160 is a worldwide contest. Propagation varies from one part of the world to another. From my QTH near San Francisco, the only stations I heard from the west were KH6 and KL7 (2,000 miles over water), and I heard very few stations from the east coast (2,800). "DX" was PJ2 and C6 (3,800 miles). 73, Jim K9YC _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: ARRL 160
that's where added half space has a useful point. your increase in copied accuracy should more than offset the decrease in spot accuracy the ZIP speed change for any part is the first thing I get rid of sitting down at a position, the pico gain in time is far offset by the annoyance and accuracy loss especially on top band I dislike the S and T, and any mis use of a character. NN is just an exchange so it matters less unless its used in a zone- BAD idea-. Its tough enough to copy correctly sent data, don't make it harder just to gain 50 microseconds. off soap WA6CDR - Original Message - From: "Joe" To: Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2022 14:05 Subject: Re: Topband: ARRL 160 I'll differ on the half space thing. I cut my repeat needs by at LEAST 75% and still get spotted by the RBN all the time, (well not much on 160 he he he) But on bands where i got good signals my repeats are far less when I use W9~E~T than when I use W9ET Joe WB9SBD On 12/7/2022 9:13 AM, Mike VE9AA ve...@nbnet.nb.ca wrote: Lee et al, Which just goes to further prove my point. The RBN (& skimmers) are truly wonderful tech, but they are not perfect even if your CW is (or nearly so). Please do not be surprised by the occasional bust or dupe if you are doing something "weird" with your callsign by adding 1/2 spaces, slowing letters down and whatnot. Human brains may (or maynot) be able to deal with that somewhat better (up for debate - I personally dislike it done to most callsigns), but computers don't 'know' what the intent is with that type of sending. VE9AA == I get spotted as KX4M and KK4TT all the time. It does not matter if I send by hand or through N1MM / Winkeyer. 73 de Lee KX4TT On Wednesday, December 7, 2022, 08:48:47 AM EST, wrote: Hi Ron, The wrong call sign spotting and "run of dupes" happens a few times a year to me. Bob, KQ2M _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector _ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
