[MRCA] BC-342 and end of displays

[Ray Fantini]

What type of events are you trying to cover distances of eighty miles? One of the larger events is MRCA Gilbert where we use channel 3 on sixty meters, 5357 USB and radios along the lines of PRC-47 and GRC-106 sets but we generally only try to work in a zone of maybe forty miles with size and type of antennas being a limiting factor. Lot of work has been done with NVIS systems being this is all in the mountains of PA.  the longest paths we have done with things like VRC-12 sets is maybe twenty miles and this is all relatively modern equipment compared to the WW2 stuff.
Until you get into the high powered HF AM stuff like the SCR-299 with external long wire antennas you’re not going to get reliable long range communications, epically with vehicle mounted antennas.
When M & S Net runs during the week or on Saturdays it’s common for many stations to work within a zone of three to four hundred miles but that’s most often with inverted V or dipole antennas. I will often run my 106 down here in Maryland and on occasion make the net just using the seventeen foot whip and counter pose but more often than not have to run an inverted V for any type of reliability.
Let me know what the event is and maybe next year I can drag up the M151 with the 106 on board if the event is open to newer vehicles.

Ray F/KA3EKH

From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of WW2RDO via MRCA
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2017 10:04 AM
To: WA5CAB at cs.com
Cc: mrca at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [MRCA] BC-342 and end of displays

If you're not going to talk to anybody, what's the point?    The only thing that just listening proves is that the receiver section works.  At vehicle and radio meets. that's no fun.

At a couple of our events, we do try to talk long distance (  80 miles , so far to no avail - radio problems on either my end or the distant station end, but we'll keep trying).  We also set up a local net (0 to 2 miles distance) that we've had better luck with.

Mark
WW2RDO


" In matters of style, swim with the current.  In matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson


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In a message dated 10/11/2017 2:22:32 AM Eastern Standard Time, WA5CAB at cs.com<mailto:WA5CAB at cs.com> writes:

I didn't say that it worked great, just that it worked.  And I didn't necessarily mean that you had to be in 2-way communication with the SSB stations.  What I said was that there is always something to listen to, if for no other reason than to show that the radio actually works to people walking by.  For actual 2-way communications with an SSB station on the other end of the circuit, you will with the BC-654 have to switch back and forth between AM and CW.  If just listening, you can always turn off the breakers in the PE-103.  Enforcing radio silence is one of their functions.

Plus, the BC-654 is the only common HF set I can think of where the receiver and transmitter share a common mode switch.

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480

In a message dated 10/10/2017 21:15:31 PM Central Daylight Time, mkdorney at aol.com<mailto:mkdorney at aol.com> writes:
Well that's great for monitoring, I suppose, but it's not so good if you want to transmit voice ( it's impossible to do in CW mode).  Not to mention the constant operation of the PE-103 when the BC-654 is operating in CW-mode.


Mark
WW2RDO


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