Related to this topic are these questions...
What does it take to have a big backscatter signal on the high bands ?
Azimuth diversity (i.e. multiple antennas pointing in different
directions) ? Take-off angle diversity ? Is the optimum take-off angle
for backscatter the same as the optimum take-off angle for 1-hop,
non-backscatter ? I don't think I have ever seen empirical studies or
models that address this.
I ask these questions, as it comes right on the heels of my SS Phone
effort. For a number of reasons, I did single-10. I know, no such
category in SS. It was fun and made for a lively Sunday. About 1160
QSO's and 80 mults. Missed IA, NE, OK - all in that backscatter range
from here in NM.
73,
Steve, N2IC
On 11/19/2013 10:15 AM, Tim Shoppa wrote:
Hans, I feel in the same situation on the high bands at least. I can work
CA over and over again on 10M but what's the fun in that? On sweeps this
isn't a great loss because it's once per contest, but in a once per band
contest like NAQP I end up with decidedly few multipliers on 10M.
I built some low dipoles and vees, which according the models had more high
angle radiation. But in actual tests, I find they are uniformly down 6-10dB
no matter what the distance compared to my high wire.
I think the only solution to picking up more mults on the high bands is
more gain, but that comes with the cost of narrower beamwidth. I have heard
some of the top-notch midwest contest stations in domestic tests: They
either have multiple transmit antennas, or some kind of easily switchable
array, because I hear them cycling through directions on each CQ and then
when I call them they go "loud" in my direction. I do something similar but
receive-only with my K9AY loop in a 160 test, because I use foot-switches
to pick the direction, and the nulls are so deep that when I'm listening SE
that a loud New England station just isn't there, that I routinely cycle
direction after each CQ.
Tim N3QE.
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|