My employer is apparently about to merge our company with another...the new
guy told the branch manager of our Miami operation:
We ain't gonna fix nothin' that ain't broken!
i) Hopefully my job is sound
ii) This sure seems an appropriate response to your query RE: The November
Sweepstakes.
SS is I assure you the biggest bestest oldest Domestic contest, and it is
just fine the way it is.
The once per weekend QSO format is very interesting in its strategy
implications/reprecussions...especially when the condx are better (not like
this weekend). It is very favourable to the smaller/average station in that
you don't HAVE to be a big gun on six bands.
The average ham has a low tribander. This type of antenna can, and has, won
SS.
The average ham runs low power. He can be loud on the higher bands where
propagation is "more important" than brute force.
The average ham is not a big gun and will call the serious (CQing)
participants rather than CQ himself, where does he tune...the entire
band.....is he tuning the extra segment????
The NAQP offers a weekend of moving multipliers, and maximizing QSOs on all
bands...it is a different contest. It has a different flavour. I suspect the
hams in rare sections like SS alot more....K1IU?
The SS is a fine old contest whose nuances are best savoured over many years
of sampling her.
Whenever contests are changed to be more like another they are the worse for
it. Were you around the year when some people suggested the ARRL
International DX Competition change to a "everybody works everybody"
format........talk about a disaster.
Contests are different, period. The SS is one flavour, a very popular one.
Judging by the number of contacts achieved by the top scorers an awful lot of
people get on for SS!
Vive la differance, SS es magnifique.....n'est pas?
K1ZX - practicing my VE2 begging for two weeks from now
(Multi SS CW + K1TO + WC4E: 1445 X Sweep as told on 3830)
40 Rules, dude
>From AA6KX@postoffice.worldnet.att.net (Bruce Sawyer) Mon Nov 4 19:20:10 1996
From: AA6KX@postoffice.worldnet.att.net (Bruce Sawyer) (Bruce Sawyer)
Subject: hill vs. ocean qth
Message-ID: <19961104192008.AAA2203@LOCALNAME>
At 05:21 PM 11/4/96 +0000, you wrote:
>
> Re> Subject: Hill vs. Ocean QTH
>
Hi Bill (and anybody else with experience in this area)... let me pose a
related question to you.
I'm just starting construction of a new oceanfront QTH station from scratch.
Within the next week or so, all of my plans go in for planning board
approval, so this is not idle musing. Those plans will need to show my
antenna plans as well as house plans. I just got through spending the last
month hacking out the jungle on Little Cayman to make room for the house and
driveway, so I now feel like I have intimate familiarity with the property.
The cuts and scratches on my hands are proof of it.
I already have 80' of Rohn 45 there on the island, with mast and rotator,
and will also show 2 other 50' towers on my plans. That's fine for 20 up,
and maybe even 40 up, but it's the low bands I'm curious about at the
moment. I have a patch of what is called "ironshore" just off the beach on
part of my property. This is a hard coral shelf right at the water level,
and it sticks out into the ocean about 120'. Think of it as a platform
approximately 100' x 100' lying right at the surface of the water, though
there are a lot of breaks in the platform which keep it from being
continuous. At high tide, this is mostly submerged; at low tide, you can
easily walk way out into the ocean on it, though the edges are sharp and
jagged and will tear up soft shoes. It is not the kind of thing you would
want to use for a permanent antenna installation--I was there when Hurricane
Lily brushed by, and anything on that shelf would have been pulverized
beyond recognition. However, I could walk out at low tide and pour concrete
supports to hold up verticals for weekend events. What would you do with
this? Should I put a beam up on my main tower for 40, or stick a bi-square
out there on the ironshore? It would be a snap to walk out and throw up 40m
verticals. 80m is a little more difficult, but I think I could manage.
(Those verticals are just going to have to be loaded a bit in order for one
person to be able to throw them up in the air.) 160 is beyond the pale, and
I doubt a permanent installation out on the ironshore would even make it
through a year. For 160 (or 80) I have the option of running a stealth
sloper to a lighthouse about 300' away from my tower.
So I guess my question really focuses on 40. Which would you rather have--a
beam at 90', back from the salt water about 150', or a configuration of
verticals out in the water and just above the surface? And what should that
configuration be?
Bruce, ZF8BS/AA6KX
>From kg6lf@c-zone.net (Jerry Boyd) Tue Nov 5 09:23:39 1996
From: kg6lf@c-zone.net (Jerry Boyd) (Jerry Boyd)
Subject: Power Line Interference Solved--Tip (LONG)
Message-ID: <327F079B.401E@c-zone.net>
A few months ago after retiring we moved to a rural area near Redding,
Ca. Wanted room for antennas (got it!) and an "rf quiet" QTH in the
country. Had that too until CQWW. It rained here almost all of CQWW
weekend and all of the sudden an S-9 noise level when the yagis were
pointed at JA. Forced to work JA's on 15 (which were weak anyhow) with
beam pointed 60 degrees west of the actual JA heading.
Monday morning after the contest(one week ago) I took a vhf-aircraft
(AM) handheld and a vhf yagi and went looking. In short order found a
PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) power pole with a transformer, various
insulators, and lightening arrestors which seemed to be the source of the
problem. Called PG&E and explained the situation and they promised to
have someone out within a week. This morning (one week) a PG&E
interference specialist arrived. He was extremely well equipped with a
variety of receivers (complete with attenuators) and yagis. In short
order he confirmed the pole I had identified and then using a handheld
receiver isolated one insulator as the primary source of the "leak".
Upon later inspection (same day!!) by a repair crew this insultor (which
I'll describe momentarily) was found to be cracked at the point where one
end of a HV line fuse was attached.
According to the repair crew this particular type of insulator has been
the source of MANY MANY problems (not just RFI, but power failures as
well). This type of insulator has been sold, in his words "to just about
every electrical utility in the country". He would not identify the
maufacturer or model number of the insulator because of pending
litigation between the manufacturer of this defenctive insulator and
several utility companies which are suing the manufacturer.
The repair supervisor told me that tens of thousands of RFI problems and
power failures have been attributed to this insulator. For lack of
better identifying information I'll describe it. It mounts ATOP the
power transformer (a pair per transformer) and protrudes at a 45 degree
angle.It is about 10 inches long and about 3 1/2 inch in diameter. It is
used to hold a long line fuse.
The PG&E crew, which by the way I am commending in writing to their boss,
not only replaced the faulty insulator and its mate, but re-configured
the layout of lightening arrestors atop the pole to reduce the number of
nuts and bolts that could later loosen and cause problems. End result,
noise is gone and an almost certain power disruption this winter averted.
If you are experiencing a noise problem which you track to a particular
pole you might look for the type of line fuse insulator I've described.
The crew that came here was sharp and knowledgable, but not all are.
Jerry
KG6LF
>From kg6lf@c-zone.net (Jerry Boyd) Tue Nov 5 09:23:39 1996
From: kg6lf@c-zone.net (Jerry Boyd) (Jerry Boyd)
Subject: Power Line Interference Solved--Tip (LONG)
Message-ID: <327F079B.401E@c-zone.net>
A few months ago after retiring we moved to a rural area near Redding,
Ca. Wanted room for antennas (got it!) and an "rf quiet" QTH in the
country. Had that too until CQWW. It rained here almost all of CQWW
weekend and all of the sudden an S-9 noise level when the yagis were
pointed at JA. Forced to work JA's on 15 (which were weak anyhow) with
beam pointed 60 degrees west of the actual JA heading.
Monday morning after the contest(one week ago) I took a vhf-aircraft
(AM) handheld and a vhf yagi and went looking. In short order found a
PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) power pole with a transformer, various
insulators, and lightening arrestors which seemed to be the source of the
problem. Called PG&E and explained the situation and they promised to
have someone out within a week. This morning (one week) a PG&E
interference specialist arrived. He was extremely well equipped with a
variety of receivers (complete with attenuators) and yagis. In short
order he confirmed the pole I had identified and then using a handheld
receiver isolated one insulator as the primary source of the "leak".
Upon later inspection (same day!!) by a repair crew this insultor (which
I'll describe momentarily) was found to be cracked at the point where one
end of a HV line fuse was attached.
According to the repair crew this particular type of insulator has been
the source of MANY MANY problems (not just RFI, but power failures as
well). This type of insulator has been sold, in his words "to just about
every electrical utility in the country". He would not identify the
maufacturer or model number of the insulator because of pending
litigation between the manufacturer of this defenctive insulator and
several utility companies which are suing the manufacturer.
The repair supervisor told me that tens of thousands of RFI problems and
power failures have been attributed to this insulator. For lack of
better identifying information I'll describe it. It mounts ATOP the
power transformer (a pair per transformer) and protrudes at a 45 degree
angle.It is about 10 inches long and about 3 1/2 inch in diameter. It is
used to hold a long line fuse.
The PG&E crew, which by the way I am commending in writing to their boss,
not only replaced the faulty insulator and its mate, but re-configured
the layout of lightening arrestors atop the pole to reduce the number of
nuts and bolts that could later loosen and cause problems. End result,
noise is gone and an almost certain power disruption this winter averted.
If you are experiencing a noise problem which you track to a particular
pole you might look for the type of line fuse insulator I've described.
The crew that came here was sharp and knowledgable, but not all are.
Jerry
KG6LF
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