Re: Topband: T32JV -- Test before Jarvis

I took the day off from playing golf yesterday and shunt fed my tower. No separate RX antenna and city lot with S9+10 QRN. When I woke up I saw Bob’s note about working T32JV and thought I would go to the radio room to see if I could hear anyone calling him. I did not hear anyone calling

Re: Topband: DXpedition Beverage Termination Grounding Schemes??

 When I was lucky enough to get by with running a 1200 foot Beverage on the rocks about 15-20 feet from the sea across about ten properties, all it took on either end was a 20 foot wire soldered to a copper plate with a big rock on top in shallow water. Best RX antenna I’ve ever had. I

Re: Topband: Using 4 - 6 elevated radials in lieu of 120 buried wires

In 1980 based on advice from a friend who had done a lot of government antenna work for WWV, VOA (I think), I put up 192 feet of Rohn 25G (!) solely dedicated to 160 Meters and had 9 radials (3 from each tower leg) attached at 60 feet. The tower, with 6 levels of guy wires all broken up with

Re: Topband: Radial Attachment Plate

plate. 73...Stan On Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 5:53 PM Jim Brown wrote: > On 10/30/2023 3:25 PM, Stan Stockton wrote: > > If you are interested send me an email and I will send you a picture of > the > > thing put together. > > I think it will help with my corrosio

Topband: Radial Attachment Plate

In preparing to head to ZF9CW in about ten days, I wanted to take something that would allow me to do a better job on my radials under my shunt fed tower. With the thing so close to salt water the detriment is that everything corrodes in a short period of time. I was looking for something to help

Re: Topband: Topband DX/NVIS

When first married, 48 years ago, I ran a wire around the small yard at the house we rented. I don’t think any part of that end fed wire was more than 15 feet off the ground and there was nothing more than a short piece of pipe driven in the ground. I had a Drake B Line and no amplifier. One

Re: Topband: 160m loaded tower

Ignacy, Is your thought that you are a few dB weaker based on sone kind of A-B test of the two antenna setups or just that you feel weaker? 73…Stan, K5GO Sent from my iPhone > On Jan 17, 2023, at 9:44 PM, Ignacy Misztal wrote: > > I have a 100 ft tower with jk mid tri 40 on top. When shunt

Re: Topband: Verticals on the beach

, ZF9CW > On Dec 30, 2022, at 1:42 AM, Dan Maguire via Topband > wrote: > > Stan Stockton wrote: > Maybe someone has some idea of just how much better my signal would be if I > had a 160m vertical 65 feet closer to the water? > > Stan, I have it on good authority that yo

Re: Topband: Verticals on the beach

Kenny, It’s not easy and in fact I haven’t done it for anything lower than 40m. It would be very interesting to compare something at the water’s edge to what I have now. The shoreline runs SW-NE - I think about 215-35. The question is how much better it would be if the antenna were right

Re: Topband: Antennas and saltwater

 Björn, I would like to see your picture if you could send it to me. You are always strong on 160 and now we know why. For the verticals I have put up on a temporary basis very close to the water, I am pleased with just two elevated radials. I tried radials on the ground and in the water

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

Re: Topband: J28MD, conditions

I have no idea how any of this FT stuff works and don’t really want to know but I am very interested to know how the ARRL knows whether someone is sleeping or awake. Stan, K5GO Sent from my iPhone > On Nov 5, 2022, at 2:26 PM, Lloyd - N9LB wrote: > > You guys don't know what you are

Re: Topband: What antenna would you build?

Different people have differing views on the definition of a serious antenna. An 8 circle with 8 directions of BSEF verticals would definitely be serious. If you wanted one tower and didn’t want to do the work to install a minimum of 100 radials or more I would consider one tall tower with

Re: Topband: Personal decision

100% agreement with what Tree has said. 73...Stan, K5GO/ZF9CW On Thu, Feb 24, 2022 at 10:23 AM Tree wrote: > I also need to respond to this sentiment: > > "it's more important at this moment to get the word out > to the Russian public that their leader's ruthless behavior is scorned > and

Re: Topband: Bill N4AR; killed in auto accident

So sorry to hear this news. Bill was a very kind and humble person. I visited him at his house in about 1980 and still think about that visit on a regular basis. Stan, K5GO/ZF9CW On Wed, Nov 24, 2021 at 4:05 PM Dan Flaig NP2J wrote: > Dan to inform that Bill N4AR ex: K4GSU was killed in an

Re: Topband: Congratulations - VE6WZ

Great choice for this award! Steve’s work has helped a lot of people. 73… Stan, ZF9CW/K5GO Sent from my iPhone > On Oct 13, 2021, at 4:53 AM, Ken Claerbout wrote: > > Congratulations to Steve Babcock, VE6WZ, who received the Yasme > Excellence Award for his contribution to the art of

Re: Topband: This report generated on Sunday, 27-Dec-20 at 20:29.

Nick, Thanks for the QSO in the Stew Perry Contest. I am curious as to where you see the result you are reporting. I see that US1Q worked 10 QRP stations and you worked 7 QRP stations. I do not see any statistics as to where they were located. Where do you see that four of the ten QRP

Topband: Stew Perry Contest

The Stew Perry Contest should be the standard for log processing. Also, unlike every other contest I have never seen anyone complain about the scoring not being fair. I have not worked the contest every year and I had forgotten how the logs are processed. I just submitted my log and then looked

Re: Topband: Adding connectoirs to CATV Hardline

It isn't fancy but very easy to do what I did 20 years ago on the phasing lines for 80m 4 Square. I just cut pieces of 5/8" aluminum tubing about 2 inches long and used a band saw to make four slits in each end. Perfect fit over the 1/2" hardline and PL-259 barrel. Then a little Noalox and

Re: Topband: T Top Verticals and yagis

I had a six element 20M Yagi on a 65 foot boom that was 200 feet away and 65 feet lower than my 40M Yagi. If the 40m Yagi was pointed to Europe it was pointed at 20M tower. I could turn the 20m Yagi so the boom was pointed at the 40m Tower and of course no problem. I could watch the SWR on the

Re: Topband: 160m vertical saltwater grounding

How big is the land area? Stan, ZF9CW > On Jan 8, 2020, at 4:30 PM, Robert Fanfant wrote: > > > Am looking to activate a location with very limited space surrounded by > ocean. Think of a small rock surrounded by saltwater/ocean. The vertical > will be a tall 60’+ fiberglass pole and made

Re: Topband: Propagation (VY0)

How about VY0ERC? They are on the radio a lot. Probably not much else to do up there. > On Dec 17, 2019, at 4:57 PM, Mike Smith VE9AA wrote: > > I am very calm Bruce. > > > > All I did was ask questions and presented some facts & results from some > searches I did. > > > > If you say

Topband: Shunt fed Tower Question

I have my tower on Cayman Brac Shunt fed for both 160 and 80 using separate coaxes, capacitors and shunt feed wires. Works great, except that I don't like the way it behaves. It appears to me that when I am on 160 for an extended length of time that something may be going on with the 80m

Re: Topband: Ground for K9AY Loop

Put a garden hose put there and run it for several hours. Then find a strong 18-35 year old to drive the ground rod. Stan, K5GO On Tue, Oct 15, 2019, 1:10 PM N4ZR wrote: > The loop is finished, but I'm having a devil of a time getting a ground > rod in at the base. It's been over a month

Re: Topband: Three Port Rx antenna splitter

Frank, If too much trouble to make a proper splitter, a $2.00 TV splitter will work fine. The specs say they are good for 5-1000 MHz. but I've used them in years past on 160m and seriously doubt that, without test equipment that most people don't even have available, you would ever know the

Re: Topband: 160 Antenna

When I was a newlywed in 1975 and lived in a downstairs apartment of a two story house, I put up a quarterwave wire that started at ground level, never got over 20 feet high, zig zagged around the yard from tree to tree. I think I drove in a short piece of aluminum tubing for a ground connection.

Re: Topband: Waller Flag

. Higher > is always better. > > Check vertical W8VVW (8m) WF or WX4D ( 10m) original WF. > > Regards > JC > N4IS > > > > -Original Message- > From: Topband On Behalf Of Stan Stockton > Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2018 2:15 PM > To: topband@contestin

Re: Topband: Waller Flag

ve plenty of space). > It seemed to be working OK in terms of being directional, > but it almost never improved the readability of any > signals vs the vertical. IOW, aiming it at Japan didn't > help work JA's, except to the extent that it reduced > stateside QRM. On a clear frequen

Topband: Waller Flag

I am curious to know if anyone on here has scaled a Waller Flag to a smaller antenna and had any success with whatever might be available for preamps to bring the gain up enough to start to hear band noise. At my location on Cayman Brac I could probably get by with a 20 foot boom but not much

Re: Topband: Impedance of inv l?

Frank and all, I thought I would share a little real world experience I had today. I have a T, loaded vertical that is only something like 57 feet tall at the moment. The R should probably be in the neighborhood of 10. It is located about 30 feet from the water. I had about 40 radials and they

Re: Topband: 75 meter 1/4 wave vertical on160

Doug, If you have the room, here is an alternative that I am using now at ZF9CW. I believe this would be better than a coil at the base. Make that vertical your 160m transmit antenna by adding two wires attached to the top and going out as far as you can so the ends are as high as you can get

Topband: DXE NCC-2

I am playing with a NCC-2 trying to see if it can be of benefit in improving the S/N ratio. Currently I have a 600 foot Beverage toward Europe and a BOG also toward Europe and about 75 feet away. Asking those who have more experience in testing different combinations to let me know which

Re: Topband: Straws in the wind, continued or, "Where's the DX?"

Some questions in my mind. How important is RF in the evolution of amateur radio? Would those who operate using FT8 be a lot less interested if it were just computers linking them with others without transmitted RF? How about operator involvement or skill? How important is it that hams retain

Re: Topband: Beverage transformer and testing

Put a 600 ohm resistor or something close across the secondary leads where the beverage would be connected and hook up an analyzer to the primary wires and see what you read on your analyzer. Check it from about 1.5 to 5 mhz and you should see a good SWR over that range and more. 73...Stan,

Re: Topband: High voltage insulator

Ray, I have a very similar setup here on Cayman Brac. The main difference is that my quarter wave vertical for 80 comes off my 160m vertical at about 50 feet or so and slopes down at a steeper than 45 degree angle and then back to the base of the 160m vertical. So it looks like a short left

Re: Topband: FT8 - the end of 160m old school DXing? (long)

Steve, Thanks for calling me this morning. Good signals. At one time I was interested in EME on 2 Meters. I found out that most of the QSOs were taking lace using some digital means where you didn't even hear the station you were working. My desire went to zero at that point in time.

Re: Topband: Top loaded vertical help,

Trevor, I have a setup similar to what you are wanting. The vertical is something like 68 feet tall. I made a very large coil using 50 feet of 1/4 inch aluminum tubing. The coil is about 9-1/2 inches in diameter and similar length. It is placed about half way up. If you want a picture of

Re: Topband: Best 160 antenna

In my opinion there wouldn't be a noticeable difference if you removed what you already have assuming you have a reasonably good radial system. Stan, K5GO > On Aug 28, 2017, at 1:14 PM, N2TK, Tony wrote: > > Question on the choke balun. I am using a Comtek 100 bead over

Re: Topband: Best 160 antenna

Next to last paragraph is what I had focused on before sending you an email last night. Seems there it is not cut and dried solution, maybe even some black magic, as opposed to an excellent ground system. I would take my chances with 120 radials on ground given the choice and dispense with

Re: Topband: My First Antenna

If you have ability to put up short dipole at height of 90 feet then you probably have ability to put up 80 feet vertical with about a 50 foot horizontal wire connected in center to the vertical portion. I would choose that over any other option you mentioned. Four elevated quarter

Re: Topband: Clean Sweeps in ARRL 160

I have it in mind that K5NA made a clean sweep many years ago and that was the first. I was not able to find VY1 this weekend or it would have been cool to work all 83 from the DX side. VE4GV literally woke me up for #82 with one call and a big signal at 35 WPM. Stan, ZF9CW Sent from

Re: Topband: Sad news N5IA SK

Very, very sad news. RIP, Milt. Stan, K5GO Sent from Stan's IPhone > On Jun 9, 2016, at 11:20 PM, Don Kirk wrote: > > Hi Jon, > > Thanks for passing this along, and how very sad. I had a nice brief chat > with Milt on 160 meters CW early this Wednesday morning just as

Re: Topband: Handheld Impedance Analyzer

I also have AA-54 analyzers. There is no comparing the MFJ-259B to the AA-54. The rig expert unit runs circles around the MFJ in so many ways. Once you use an AA-54 I will guarantee that you will never ever want to use an MFJ analyzer again. 73...Stan, K5GO On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 4:45 PM,

Re: Topband: Tecsun 660

Frank, I have a friend who has used the RF Gain control as needed, balanced antenna and accurate, equal measurement of the strength of the noise off center by an equal number of degrees CW and CCW from the actual direction to determine with great accuracy the direction of the noise. Then

Re: Topband: Commercial 160 antennas?

Bill, You need to shunt feed that 90 foot tower! You can decide whether you want to install an extensive radial field or whether to easily put up a few elevated radials. This is an easy project and will kill the performance of a 43 foot vertical for almost no cost. What tower is it? Are

Re: Topband: Commercial 160 antennas?

Bill, You are going to like what you end up with even on some of the other bands. I would think that three 17 foot long guy wires attached to the tower would have a bad influence on the tribander. In fact that's a very bad length attached to the tower and under a 20m antenna. You are not going

Re: Topband: rohn insulators

Those look identical to the ones I made for my 8m 4 Square Towers. Use G10, not just any fiberglass. The G10 rod is more like $20.00 per foot retail, unless you do a little searching. The one thing I would do differently is add a washer over the machined ends of the fiberglass insulators to put

Re: Topband: rohn insulators

s details about that? > > 73 > > Lloyd - N9LB > > -Original Message- > From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Stan > Stockton > Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 4:59 AM > To: Merv Schweigert <k...@flex.com> > Cc: topband@contesting.com >

Re: Topband: Vertical Antenna on a cliff above the Sea

Robb, I assume you do not have a 130 foot support at the edge of the cliff. Perhaps you have a loaded dipole? If you think the cliff will block your signal in the most desired directions, you will have to do something different but if not, I would suggest you put two radials in line with

Re: Topband: Use of Remote Receivers During 160 Meter Contests

Andy, But that is not a pure radio QSO If he has local noise they need to figure out a way to hear on site. You were not confused with that thought. It was crystal clear thinking regarding what constitutes a valid two way QSO between two station locations without other communication

Re: Topband: Use of Remote Receivers During 160 Meter Contests

Oh my God, I had no idea that this would be seriously considered. Part of this game we play has to do with station building. Some can afford to have someone build it for them. Some do it themselves. Some spend the time working with neighbors and utility companies to minimize QRN. Some

Re: Topband: What ever happened to the 160 meter Z antenna?

A good analysis of all this can be found from IV3PRK as he planned his antenna for his new QTH in HC land. http://www.iv3prk.it/user/image/site2-inverted-l-vs-vertical-t.pdf 73...Stan, K5GO Sent from my iPad On Feb 16, 2015, at 6:14 AM, Tom W8JI w...@w8ji.com wrote: Tom, Thanks for the

Re: Topband: K1N DQRM Tracking Project

A friend of mine told me recently that he has had the electrical utility company out several times to fix noise problems and without ever leaving his house tells them exactly which pole is the culprit. Further, that they were always happy to help because he has not been wrong yet. OK, so how

Re: Topband: Is self-spotting ALWAYS wrong?

Mike, You did self spot just by calling CQ, more than 15 times. It's automatic. http://www.reversebeacon.net/dxsd1/dxsd1.php?f=0c=W0btut=dx 73...Stan, K5GO Sent from my iPad On Feb 7, 2015, at 6:30 AM, Mike Waters mikew...@gmail.com wrote: Pardon my ignorance, but if there is little or

Re: Topband: The Future Of Ham Radio

Exactly correct, Eddy. 35 years ago I formed my opinion about 2m repeaters, realizing that everyone's signal was the same strength regardless of whether they had an 11 element antenna or a rubber duckie. It was too socialistic for my taste and I had no interest. An EME station was on my

Re: Topband: The Future Of Ham Radio

On Feb 5, 2015, at 11:08 AM, Steve London n2ica...@gmail.com wrote: On 02/05/2015 09:45 AM, Wayne Kline wrote: I my self enjoy the HUNT the listening on the other VFO trying to guess what and how he is operating.. Some OP's are predictable some it's a crap shoot. but that the

Re: Topband: CQWW160 Remote receiver rule

DXCC is a joke for many. At one time it was fun to chase DX, listen for hours to work a new one and perhaps compare with locals in a friendly competition. With Internet spotting and the ability to operate from anywhere in the country using a remote site, it has long since become meaningless

Topband: Kite Vertical - ZF

We are leaving next Tuesday to go visit my son and his family in Cayman Islands. I'm going to work the CQ 160 Meter Contest and, for comfort reasons, will operate from a fixed, inland location. If there is time, however, I am bringing a kite and some small wire and am hoping we can go to the

Re: Topband: Speculating via Stew posted scores

Sorry, I had a huge line noise problem, about 15 over 9 with SSB filter and maybe about S7 with it narrowed down. I operated QRP in an effort to not attract as many who I would not be able to copy. For most of the contest, I had the RF gain backed off to mask it. I could copy most of the

Topband: Shunt Feed - Insulated Elements on Yagi

I have never had an issue with this on any tower I have shunt fed that had a Yagi at the top with insulated elements, but then again my insulators are probably a lot better than the average ones used on commerical antennas. I am thinking about shunt feeding a tower that is not mine and wanted to

Re: Topband: topband report from 4V1JB

Dale, Assume and hope the call sign was 4V1JR instead of 4V1JB? Sorry you had problems with local noise. You did the best you could do with the location you had available and those who made a contact during the contest really appreciate your efforts. I worked you on 80 and 20 using another

Re: Topband: BCB interference ?

Why can't you come out of Ant out jack through filter and back in through ant in jack and select RX antenna? Stan, K5GO Sent from Stan's IPhone On Sep 22, 2014, at 8:07 AM, Hardy Landskov n...@cox.net wrote: Ed, I have the same problem. A 25KW station at 1560 KHz just destroys the front

Re: Topband: Outdoor rope suggestions

http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/product_pages/Products.asp?mi=68571 73...Stan, K5GO Sent from my iPad On Sep 2, 2014, at 2:14 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist rich...@karlquist.com wrote: On 9/2/2014 10:06 AM, Jim Brown wrote: I'm supporting high dipoles fed by RG11 up 120 ft with the

Re: Topband: Modeling the proverbial vertical on a beach

I know what I am going to say isn't talking about 160m, but pertains to a vertical on the beach. Quantifying, with anything but anecdotal data, the difference between a horizontal antenna located inland versus a vertical on the beach would take something more than a short experiment but here

Re: Topband: Replacing F Connectors with BNCs

An alternative would be to use BNC females and an adapter to go from the F male with a male BNC on the other end. I have a of them without any issues. 73...Stan, K5GO On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 9:19 AM, Hank Garretson w...@arrl.net wrote: On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 4:38 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR