[GreenKeys] Wednesday Update on HoffNet

[Roy Norris]

Today saw very little on the air activity.  Band conditions continued to
be poor.  George, W7TTY and I conducted some test this morning on 20
meters, 30 meters, and on 40 meters.  I was inaudible in Auburn,
Washington on all bands.

I had a nice QSO on 20 meters with Bryan, W6QNE in Bethel Island,
California (Southern) and he gave me an S-9 signal report.  I was also
heard in Alaska by Tom, KA1NVZ

These tests have been conducted on a 135 foot dipole at 65 feet, fed
with open wire and tuned with a Johnson Matchbox.  Power on 20 meters
and 30 meters was 150 watts.  Power on 40 meters was 60 watts due to
high SWR.

The problem in communicating with George in Auburn, Washington, was
probably exacerbated by the fact that my dipole antenna runs NW - SE
putting him off the end.  

I've drawn the following conclusions based on my tests.  30 meters (10
Mhz) is probably out as a single net frequency due to propagation.  20
Meters will allow us to cover the entire country but isn't open much
before local noon and closes by 9:00 PM local time.  Forty meters opens
a little earlier and closes a little later.

My next course of action is to put up vertical dipoles for 20 and 40
meters so that I will have general coverage of the US, unlike with the
dipole.

Secondly, I now have the Hal DS-3100 in house and I will put that on
line to serve as a WRU until Gil finishes with the TTY-Connect project.

Finally, I got my GPS time/frequency standard working and can now set
transmit frequency to an accuracy of 1 part per billion !  So net
frequency will be well within 1 cps accuracy. 

It will take me several days to get the new antenna up and the DS-3100
set up.  I am going to use two wires tied to the same feed line, one for
20 meters and one for 40 meters, for the verticals.  I plan to feed it
with open wire line and tune it with a Johnson KW matchbox.  It will
take me a little time to get this done so I probably won't be ready to
begin testing again until Saturday.

I am suggesting the following frequencies on the 20 meter and 40 meter
bands:

20 Meters:  14.083300  and  40 meters:  7.083300

On 30 Meters, our old standby:  10.137300

Please let me know if anyone wishes to suggest other/alternate
frequencies.  But based on our earlier discussion, it seems like these
would work for everyone.

Once again, I plan to start testing again on Saturday.  I will publish a
schedule later.  If we still have trouble, I will boost power from 150
to 1500 watts.

Its looking like the best approach is going to be a multiple frequency
approach as suggested by Bob Camp earlier.  Perhaps 40 meters, 30
meters, and 20 meters along with some sort of schedule for what to use
when .

Comments are welcomed .

Best regards -- Roy Norris, K4EEG