Don't sell Topband mobile short... in the 60s I ran CW mobile and had a
lot of fun, but I was never as serious as KH6DX/M... If you build as
efficient an array as you can & make it draw a lot of RF current, folks
will hear you. Best part, I think, is you can DRIVE AWAY from that $#$^&
power line leak!
Still remember digging KH6DX/M out of the XZ0A pileup and laughing out loud
(got a perplexed look from the 80 & 40 station ops in the same room) and
saying if he can make THAT much signal over here, he has it down right! I
played the audio tape of that time block and was able to dig parts of his
call out of the pileup for about 5-6 minutes before I heard him
"live". His signal was NOT 30 dB below everyone else, on the contrary, it
appeared again that when the searchlight shined, folks got
through.. Propagation to the west coast was never very good on this trip -
signals were there but never very strong - and KH6DX/M made it through
clearly and completed in one exchange. I have been wondering if our contact
is his DX record distance - Guess I'll have to go find him and ask.
Secret is hard work & LOTS of patience! (just like most top band work)
73
robin critchell, WA6CDR
XZ0A/XZ1N
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