[HCARC] 80 meter short distance comm & Field Day

Sun Feb 9 08:25:30 EST 2014

During our "in-house" Field Day at the RC radio room several years ago Bob
Richie traveled to Sonora and put up a 80 M antenna and contacted n5hr here.
Hv

-----Original Message-----
From: hcarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:hcarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of Gary J - N5BAA
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2014 8:10 PM
To: SARA SANDSTROM; H - Reflector
Subject: Re: [HCARC] 80 meter short distance comm & Field Day

>From my recollection, I heard about the 80M experiment in a conversation
with Dr Jim concerning Field Day.  He was the one who had suggested to me
(not necessarily the first one to suggest it overall) as an experiment
during Field Day.  Dr Jim's thinking I surmise was connected with Bob
Ritchie's scheduling Dale Gaudier to talk about his wide band 80 meter
dipole as the presentation for the May meeting with a follow-up "build the
antenna session" scheduled for the Saturday following.  Newly built NVIS
Dipole antennas and the chance to utilize them in June seemed a natural
progression.  My idea for Field Day is the more antennas the merrier.

I have been working to identify enough of the 4 foot military surplus mast
sections to be able to put up 7-8 40 foot support masts to string antennas
from.  At this point I have identified 72 four foot sections, 50 of which
are the stronger aluminum ones.  We had a problem last Field Day with the
fiberglass ones splitting (principally mine which weren't reinforced - you
know what I am talking about if you have the mast sections).  I have since
replaced these mast sections with the aluminum ones and have donated the
fiberglass ones to the club.  They will work fine, but need one of the metal
hose clamps on each joint to reinforce them.  Since they will only be used
once a year or so, the extra effort to reinforce them is doable.  IF YOU
HAVE MAST SECTIONS AND ARE WILLING TO USE THEM AT FIELD DAY, PLEASE ROGER
UP.  The more masts we can erect the better and it frees us from being
dependent on finding a location that not only has sufficient covered
pavilion space, but also adequate tall trees, etc.  It would be wonderful to
get to the point where holding Field Day is purely a matter of finding
sufficient ground to build antenna mast on, far enough apart for the
antennas.

I also have access to a couple of these "portable garages" if they are
needed. 
http://www.harborfreight.com/10-ft-x-17-ft-portable-garage-69039.html

Gary J
N5BAA
HCARC Secretary 201314
2014 Field Day Coordinator

-----Original Message----- 
From: SARA SANDSTROM
Sent: Saturday, February 8, 2014 5:44 PM
To: H - Reflector
Subject: [HCARC] 80 meter short distance comm

I'm not sure who in the club is working the short range 80 meter question.

For everyone's info, here is a list of 80 meter contacts that covered 100 
miles or less.  My station consists of an ~70 Watt transmitter and a 
Butternut HF2V vertical.  The vertical is not a good choice for a short 
range antenna, a low dipole should do better.  Of the dozen contacts, 11 
were in the even ing after dark  and 1 was in the morning before sunrise. 
None were pre-arranged.  Two were good CW signals but would probably not 
have been useful for SSB, 3 would probably have been marginal for SSB and 
the remaining 7 would have produced useful SSB signals. All would have been 
adequate for PSK.

The contacts included Junction, Salado, Georgetown (2), Austin (4), Liberty 
Hill, Dripping Springs, Round Rock and Selma.  The stations on the other end

were using between 40 and 100 Watts with  verticals, inverted vees, or loop 
antennas.The contact with Junction is possibly ground wave.  The contact 
with Dripping Springs I believe had both ground wave and sky wave components

do to the fading and multipath echo on the signal.

The problem with using random signals is, except for contests, there is very

little activity (actually none!) on 80 meters in this area during the 
daytime.  However, I am convinced that Austin and closer is easily workable 
on 80 meter CW using 100 W and almost any antenna at anytime with the 
exception of during the day if there is a stro ng X-ray flare on the sun.  I

also believe that the same area can be worked using SSB if low dipoles and 
100 W are used.  My experience has been that QRN is lower in the summer 
during the day than at night.  I hope that th e club is able to conduct the 
80 meter experiment  for Field D ay.  If I 'm available, I certainly plan on

listening for all the rov ers and perhaps I'll get a dipole up for 
comparison with my vertical.

Kerry
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