There is about a 20 dB difference between horizontal and vertical
polarizations with one station using the opposite of the other. I generally
don't run FM in the VHF contests because I usually operate from hills that
are far away from populated areas, and I usually enter QRP. CW and SSB get
a lot farther on 10 watts or less. I use horizontally polarized antennas on
all bands.
I can typically work 200-250 miles with 10 watts under average conditions
on 144 MHz and up, but I do have the height advantage of the hill.
I might take along a beam to use with vertical polarization some time to
see who I can work on FM.
73, Zack W9SZ
On Thu, Nov 3, 2016 at 8:05 PM, Sean Waite <waisean@gmail.com> wrote:
> Are you guys running your beams horizontal or vertical for FM only? The
> penalty for cross polarization is pretty nasty, but I guess most of the
> sideband stations are running higher power and big enough beams to make up
> for that. Just curious, we don't have dedicated FM antennas at the moment
> but occasionally flip over to see who is out there.
>
> Sean WA1TE
>
> On Thu, Nov 3, 2016, 20:50 John Young via VHFcontesting <
> vhfcontesting@contesting.com> wrote:
>
> > Micheal,
> >
> >
> > I do FM Only. The folks on the contesting reflector are super helpful.
> > Do a search on the reflector under "VHF contesting KM4KMU" on google or
> > using the reflector search tool under my call KM4KMU. Lots of great
> > information from the contesters here.
> >
> >
> > My QRZ page may be of some help too. Last night I gave a 45 slide one
> > hour presentation on my FM station build and contesting experience, good,
> > bad, lessons learned from last January and this past September. If you
> > send me your email address (send to nosigma@aol.com) I will post the
> > presentation to Drop Box and pass a link for you to down load the
> > presentation if your interested.
> >
> >
> > I am adding 6m FM to my station for January. I have been torn between
> > building a custom beam (mountain top mobile via Jeep) or getting the
> > Dominator omni and setting up a second mast. I am probably going to go
> with
> > the beam since the 6M rig is all about the multipliers.
> >
> >
> > I love my M2 220-10 EZ and 440-18 beams. The 220 antenna was perfect at
> > factory settings out of the box. the 440 was a bit more challenging to
> get
> > dialed in perfectly, it took a couple hours with network analyzer to get
> it
> > spot on perfect, but I tend to be a little uncompromising.
> >
> >
> > I run the CX-333. Its a great antenna. I use it for close in work,
> under
> > 60 miles and the beams for reaching out and grabbing
> grids/multipliers,187
> > miles is the best so far. Beyond that one condition I find that the
> omni
> > is pretty worthless. I exhaust the close in contacts after about 10
> minutes
> > at the top of each hour and after that its all about the beams. My
> > location is unique, your results may vary. FM can be a bit of a desert so
> > BIC is key.
> >
> >
> > 73
> > John Young
> > KM4KMU
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michael Murphy <michael@k5mbm.com>
> > To: vhfcontesting <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
> > Sent: Thu, Nov 3, 2016 1:01 pm
> > Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Setting up new station
> >
> > Thank you all who responded. You've all given me something to think
> about.
> >
> > Following on some of the advice given, I am going to shoot for FM only
> > in the January contest. I will not have moved to the new location yet
> > so it won't be optimum, but it will be a start. All I really need to do
> > is get a 6 meter FM antenna up. I already have a Comet CX-333 for 2,
> > 1.25 and 70cm. I am thinking of getting a Dominator 6M antenna from
> > Norwalk Electronics. It will handle 1500 watts and is highly rated.
> >
> > Right now my antennas are mounted on 20' poles attached to the eave of
> > the house. I have 10 segments of Rohn 25g to put up at the new
> > location, but I am thinking of a temporary 30' setup with the 6M antenna
> > attached to the top. Along with setting up the logging software, I
> > should be able to get it all done by the January contest.
> >
> > As somebody said, this will give me experience in the process from
> > beginning to end and afterwards I can evaluate what needs to be improved.
> >
> > Again Thanks,
> >
> > Michael Murphy
> > K5MBM
> > EM20
> >
> > On 10/29/2016 11:13 PM, Michael Murphy wrote:
> > > This is an opinion question, so tell me your opinion and why you feel
> > the way you do. I have been wanting to get into vhf contests, but
> haven't
> > got it all together yet. I currently have a Yaesu 450D and 100D. Also
> > have 3 Tyt 9000 (2m, 1.25m and 70cm FM). I will be moving in a few
> months
> > and have been thinking about the new shack and thinking of upgrading the
> > equipment. So if you were to start from scratch to build a decent single
> > operator station primarily for Vhf contest (I've be doing HF just fine
> with
> > what I've got now), what equipment would you use? I like that the
> Elecraft
> > K3 has support for multiple transverters. I also like the Icom IC-9100
> for
> > its 2m and 70cm capability, but no transverter support. When it comes to
> > tranverters, I like the way the Elecraft transverters work with the K3,
> but
> > Demi has more band choices. As far as antennas go, I've only got a
> triband
> > vertical for the FMs. So any thoughts and comments are welcome.
> > >
> > >
> > > Sent from my iPad
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > VHFcontesting mailing list
> > > VHFcontesting@contesting.com
> > > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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