[SJRA-Members] QSO Party Newbie Operating Question

[AC2FO]

I would say several things could be at play on 10 meters. Vert - Horizontal
you lose 20 db 

Most people don't have a dedicated 10 meter antenna they load up a 80 meter
dipole with that you wind up with a skewed distorted pattern, which you may
happen to be where there is a null further degrading the signal. I included
a model of a 80 meter dipole at 50 ft off ground on 28 MHz This is looking
straight down on the antenna 


Just some food for thought 

Dennis 
AC2FO



-----Original Message-----
From: SJRA-Members [mailto:sjra-members-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf
Of Mark Walters
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2016 8:47 PM
To: sjra-members at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [SJRA-Members] QSO Party Newbie Operating Question

Well folks, I have had one heck of a time trying to make contact with local
K2AA/100 operators so far during this entire QSO party as well as SJRA/100
self spotters. 
In fact, I have not been able to contact K2AA/100 operators at all while
operating as my own call despite chasing the schedules, chasing the flurry
of email self spots etc. 

I have a Yaesu FT-857D and when I bring it into the house I match it with a
YT-100 tuner, and a vertical multiband EZ Military HF antenna and a Diamond
vertical 2M antenna which I can hit most other local repeaters with(except
K2AA lol
This combination worked fairly well during the Jan VHF contest. 
My 6M dipole that I just built this week and tuned with a Comet antenna
analyzer and further tuned with the YT-100 did not seem to produce any local
or far contacts on 6M during my K2AA operator slots(I believe the band was
closed during my slots according to propagation sites for 6M). 

I did manage to make a few outbound contacts while operating as K2AA/100
early in the week on 2M repeaters (other than SJRAs) since I can not hit
K2AA from my low lying development . 

In my frustration, today I took down my temporary shack in my home and took
down all my temp antennas in my back yard and put the radio back in my
truck. 
Tonight at 7:15 I heard a band opening on 20M and managed to make my first
DX contact as a newly minted General, to a station in Italy like they were
sitting next to me. 

Subsequently, I turned back to the K2AA 10M net and could barely here Roy at
8:00PM. (I know I am cross polarized with a vertical ATAS-120 antenna on my
truck despite it also having a built in tuner). 

Summary, I am a newbie and have had a great deal of fun trying this week so
far but realize I have soooooo much to learn in Radio. 

Question to all the experienced SJRA operators >>>Does anyone have any
suggestions/feedback as to why I can't hit local contacts in HF but can hit
Italy like they were sitting next to me? 
...NVIS, cross polarized, band opening, right place/right time... all of the
above, none of the above... ??? 

Any suggestions on what might be going on here are welcome. 

Thanks in advance for your feedback :) 

Mark Walters KD2JPW/AG 



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