You pose great questions that are very difficult to answer.
Have you noticed any degradation in the operation of the other
antennas? If not I would not worry about it. It is a comprimise you
make to work DX and you can bet the second you take down the WARC beam
something you badly need will show up there.
It sounds like you need the new SteppIR antennas they just started
selling or sell the F12 and put up a smaller version of the SteppIR
that has 6-40m if you are greatly concerned about interaction.
I have an Cushcraft XM240 @82 ft and the 4 ele SteppIR with the 30/40
option @72ft. I never use the 40m part but I wanted 30m. I am
considering replacing the second director with a second 30/40 element
for a bit more gain. Once caveat to the SteppIR is that you do not get
instant band switches which makes band changes a bit slower.
For SO2R I would prefer a 2nd tower with antennas that allow instant
band changes.
If it was me I would leave well enough alone.
Good luck!
Mike W0MU
On 4/19/2011 10:05 PM, Timothy Coker wrote:
> I currently have a 55' crank up tower with 15' of mast sticking out above my
> thrust bearing. I have an 80m inverted-v a few feet below the thrust
> bearing, a F12 C31XR right above the thrust bearing, and a Cushcraft XM240
> 12' above the thrust bearing. I do not have the property for a second tower.
>
> I love being serious during domestic contests and enjoy having fun during
> world wide contests. I enjoy DXing during the interim of the contests that
> catch my attention. However, my main interests by far are contests.
>
> I put up a Cushcraft A3WS in between my C31XR and the XM240 with all of the
> booms being placed in parallel with each other. I have about 6' of
> separation in between each of the yagis. I did this because I was still
> working on getting 100 DXCC entities on 30/17/12, which I have now
> accomplished. I also knew it would help me build up my DXCC Challenge totals
> so that I could hit 1,000 for the lumber. That is done. I lastly did it with
> the fact that I need 67 more for #1 Honor roll, something I am still working
> on.
>
> The question I have is whether having a three element yagi sandwiched in
> between my contest antennas is really worth it when my main interest lies in
> contesting. DXCC stats are cool and I do enjoy getting the new band
> entities, but it doesn't give me the same thrill as trying to place well in
> a contest. I have no idea how little or how much interaction may be
> occurring, but something has to give when extra, un-needed metal is around
> our antennas during a contest.
>
> The risk of interaction during a contest versus the reward of DX during the
> off times is at question. While taking the A3WS down would be a personal
> choice for my own interests, I imagine there must be other contesters out
> there who have gone through this thought process? Maybe other's on the
> reflector can weigh in on whether I am thinking short term and not long term
> as my DX oriented Elmer would tell me. He's only interested in a 59(9) and
> he's out of a pile up... while I want every last bit of energy oriented
> toward holding a run frequency.
>
> My initial steps towards removing the WARC yagi would be to leave the driven
> element up as a rotatable dipole mounted in-line with the booms of my C31XR
> and XM240 so as to minimize any potential interaction. My next step would be
> to eventually replace it with a rotatable 80m dipole at the same point on
> the mast.
>
> Am I over analyzing here?
>
> 73,
>
> Tim / N6WIN.
>
> Checkout http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z90/tjcoker/N6WIN%20LM354HD/ for
> my tower install project, password is "73".
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