[Lowfer] Wateringhole in CT + SDR & Beacons

Wed, 10 Dec 2003 02:14:48 -0500

Some thoughts on 'Watering Holes' from the originator of 185.3:

I think the concept of grouping together was born from the desire to be seen 
by the maximum number of guys with receiving sites. As individuals, at 
different locations over a spread of 30k, the chances of a beacon being seen 
on a given night by any receiving sight goes down by something close to 1/X. 
  Where X is the number of beacons on the air on a given night.

I don't think there was any particular desire for the original 
north-easterners to group together other than we all had a few things in 
common. We all operated loop antennas, we communicated with each other about 
the intricacies of this previously unused antenna, and I think we all wanted 
to compare performance against each other. The success of the watering hole 
concept just happened to grow from this, and others joined in.

Grouping beacons together on a regional basis is really a problem if beacons 
are less than 50 miles apart. For example John A and I are too close to 
allow either to receive distant watering hole signals without effecting the 
other. Even at 72 miles Lyle K and Mike R sometimes get in each others way. 
If other beacon groupings were to be formed I would recommend not making it 
a regional grouping.

Perhaps others have some ideas on this.

Bill A

>From: "WE0H" <[email protected]>
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>To: <[email protected]>
>Subject: RE: [Lowfer] Wateringhole in CT + SDR & Beacons
>Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2003 23:10:12 -0600
>
>I am rock bound at 185.3026kc.
>
>Mike>WE0H
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
>On Behalf Of [email protected]
>Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 2:50 PM
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: [Lowfer] Wateringhole in CT + SDR & Beacons
>
>
>On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 10:43:11 -0600 "Steve Hughes" <[email protected]>
>writes:
> > Hi Bob,
> >
> > My home is in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
> >
> > Currently I am listening with an RX-320 and a long wire antenna.
> >
> >
>
>I touched bases with Steve off list but his question on the Watering Hole
>raised an interesting point. Should we be looking at another regional
>hole  ??
>the current one is pretty full with the E/NE group and would it be worth
>starting
>another for the N/Mid West group...
>
>Kind of end up watering holing across country,,, Thoughts Comments
>
>Bob  K3DJC

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