[600MRG] Western Carolinas on FST-4W 120 tonight

[Doug Allen]

Thanks to all those who were on 630M FST-4W-120 last night.  FST4
documentation says that-*    FST4W-120 is about 1.4 dB better than standard
WSPR, and with its 30-minute sequences FST4W-1800 reaches a threshold SNR
of nearly -45 dB. *I would like to try some FST4 schedules this fall.
My antenna, especially RX receive, is not quite as good as 2 years ago when
I last operated 630M and 2200M.  Then I had an umbrella antenna with over
450' feet of top hat wire, and needed very little inductance to resonate on
630M.  Now I have a two flattop INV L with 200' of top hat wires spread
only 30 degrees apart.  Then I could run up to 100 watts TPO with an
amplifier on 475 mHz. Now I have 50 watts with a Monitor Sensors
transverter.  Then I could switch between a Wellbrook amplified loop, two
BIG KAZ receiving antennas, and my TX antenna for receive.  With my Flex
6500 and Monitors Sensors transverter I haven't discovered an easy way to
use a separate receive antenna using WSJT which doesn't provide for
separate transmit and receive frequency offsets, so I'm using
the suboptimal TX antenna for receive.
The better sensitivity of the FST4 modes, compared to WSPR and JT9 that I
used in previous years, should make my station capability about the same as
before.  Last night, for some reason, didn't confirm that.  On WSPR the
previous nights, I had eked out a small advantage in total spots and unique
spots compared to NC neighbor N1HO, but Brandy clearly was better on FST4W
last night.
Doug K4LY
Inman, SC

On Sun, Aug 28, 2022 at 9:06 AM Bayard Coolidge, N1HO <n1ho at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Well, I'm going to claim that the test was something of a success!
>
> Although the number of stations was down (as I expected), the distances
> were heartening.
>
> I heard only 3 uniques, across 48 spots, with the best DX being KE7A/W at
> 1371km, which is about as well as I've been doing recently.
>
> I was heard by 10 uniques across 336 spots, with the best DX being KM5SW
> at 2167km, my best DX so far this season.
>
> We were lucky to be able to run this overnight, as thunderstorms had been
> predicted for the WNC mountains again,
> which is quite typical for this time of year. I did hear quite a few
> crashes during the evening, and it was apparent from
> observing BlitzOrtung.org that there were some rather severe storms across
> the continent, especially at the Space Coast
> of Florida. I ran with "20%" and "Random", but I'm thinking of adjusting
> the latter to "1/3" or "1/4" to perhaps increase
> how often I actually transmit.
>
> Thank you all for participating, and I hope to hear, and be heard on, the
> West Coast over the next couple of months.
>
> 73,
>
> Brandy (EM85sg until late October)
>
>
> On Saturday, August 27, 2022, 04:50:15 PM EDT, Doug Allen <
> dougk4ly at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Nothing could be finer than to hear the Carolina- stations N1DAY and N1HO
> in North Carolina and K4LY in South Carolina, and we would like to hear you
> on FST-4W 120 second transmissions as well. The three of us are all in
> southern EM85 near each other.
> Please join us.
> Doug K4LY
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