All,
My friend Steve, VE6WZ has a very wonderful remote station with regards
to signals to the distant and populated centers. His RX and TX antennas
sit on a hill with a gentle slope, leveling out to a totally flat
horizon. This results in a very nice low takeoff angle. Geography wise
he is has ~one hop to the auroral oval. This perhaps explains why he
has such great QSO numbers. With a low noise RX setup this allows him to
work what I call Tier 1 to Tier 3 DX stations. Tier 1 being HP with
multi element arrays with RX on array or low noise RX antennas, Tier 2
HP with single vertical and RX antennas. Tier 3 being the average
station with perhaps high power, lesser RX antennas or residential in
nature. The numbers of contacts he has gathered is astounding! The link
here is representative of an average good day on 160m.
http://w7rh.net/images/latest.jpg
The list of stations that Steve provided meet the Tier1 category. They
have TX arrays that are well placed and developed with excellent radial
systems, high power and supplemental low noise RX antennas.
DF2PY 26
LA1MFA 19
RA4LW 19
ON7PQ 18
SM5EDX 15
SM7BIC 14
F5NZ 11
F5IN 10
RC3FL 10
I might add another 15-20 call signs to that list. In the Winter months
they are there everyday, at least audible at my QTH. However, for the
most part they are magnitudes weaker in signal strength in the Western
US geographically. Likely west of the Rockies.
The questions remain is CW dieing and is FT8 mode better? I have some
experience using FT8. My answer is also no. While FT8 allows smaller
stations significant a margin of improvement, I have found in my low
noise environment that I can copy -20 S/N FT8 stations on CW. Long haul
DX stations still go unnoticed in the low noise morning hours by the
vast majority of the FT8 users. However, if you combine a low noise RX
location with a good TX system the results can be somewhat amazing. I've
found it to be a crap shoot. The reason being folks rely too much on the
software technology to do the job and either can't improve RX and TX or
have not tried.
Following through with what I just said. Patience is a virtue, and 160m
requires a lot of it. Perhaps that is the reason I've spent over 40
years experimenting, building and playing on the band. Thus far I've had
two "Grand Openings" on top band this season. By that definition Tier 1,
Tier 2 and many Tier 3 stations were worked or heard. Right now with the
current solar conditions that might happen once or twice a month in the
winter season. That means at least most Western US stations without some
geographic exceptions really have only few days a month to really expand
the log with new ones. So with that in mind take a listen to what I call
a Grand Opening. EU pileup trying to work VP6D
http://w7rh.net/audio_files/VP6DPILE.mp3
Truly a night to die for! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a
Healthy Prosperous and Happy New year!
May we have good conditions in the Stew Perry!
73, Bob W7RH
--
W7RH DM35OS
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
Albert Einstein
_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
|
