[Elecraft] K1 band selection -Friendly opinions

[N2EY at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/29/07 11:51:41 AM Eastern Standard Time, ron at cobi.biz 
writes:


> The "WARC" bands (including 17 meters) are great, but the simple truth is
> they are not as well populated as the old standbys (10, 15, 20, 40, 80,
> 160). I think that's due, in part, to the popularity of multi-band coax-fed
> antennas. 

Yes, and that's a major reason for hams who have limited antenna resources 
(lot size, high supports, space on the tower, etc.) 

Of course the classic dipole-fed-with-ladder-line and end-fed-random-wire 
antennas can be made to work on those bands easily - if you can put one up.

But there are other reasons.

One biggie IMHO is that they are not included in contests, so they don't get 
the exposure that contests generate, and the big gun contesters do not build 
stations for those bands.

Another reason is that they are relatively narrow (30, 17 and 12 meters 
together are only 250 kHz, which is narrower than any other single Region 2 HF 
amateur band). Plus 30 meters is CW/data only in the USA.

There's also the fact that their propagation isn't much different from the 
adjacent bands, with the possible exception of 30 meters.

73 de Jim, N2EY


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