[SJRA-Members] QSO Party Newbie Operating Question

Fri Jun 17 07:30:33 EDT 2016

There is always 2m. What we need to do is get K2AA/100 on 2m

Best Regards
Ken

> On Jun 16, 2016, at 10:37 PM, AC2FO <ac2fo at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> I have to agree with Bob, 80 m at Night will be your best chance The H/V 20
> db loss is for Ground Wave signals not DX. 40M NVIS during the day 80M NVIS
> at night. Antennas low to the ground is what pushes the signal straight up,
> us people with dipoles lower to the ground talk real good local not so much
> DX. I had a hard time copying K2WB/100 40M other evening  we have to be
> under 10 air mile or so from each other on. 
> 
> http://www.arrl.org/nvis
> 
> Dennis
> AC2FO
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SJRA-Members [mailto:sjra-members-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf
> Of Bob Beyer
> Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2016 9:53 PM
> To: 'Mark Walters'; sjra-members at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [SJRA-Members] QSO Party Newbie Operating Question
> 
> Hi Mark,
> 
> Congrats on the first DX with your new General privileges.
> What you're experiencing on HF is completely normal.  While it may be easy
> to make contact with someone VERY nearby (say only a couple miles) it's also
> entirely likely that your signals will hop right over each other if you're
> more than a just a few miles apart.  Various bands have different
> propagation characteristics; some will travel farther via the ground wave
> effect and some will do better when bouncing off the different layers of the
> ionosphere (E, F1, F2, etc.).  
> 
> In general 160m and 80m will behave well for close-in contacts and you
> should be able to do well with stations both nearby and out to several
> hundred miles after sun-down.  However, these two bands suffer from
> atmospheric noise far more than the others so the noise level can be a bear.
> On 40m through 10m, you may or very likely may not hear close-in stations
> (other members).  There are so many propagation phenomena that trying to go
> into them all in a single email would be tedious.  One common one is called
> Near Vertical Incident Sky-wave (or NVIS) where signals go nearly straight
> up and bounce back.  This doesn't give long distance but works for local
> stuff in your vicinity and nearby, say a few hundred miles.  40m is famous
> for this.
> 
> Making contacts on HF is not as predictable as a VHF or UHF repeater.  This
> is what makes it exciting.  Some days the bands will be "hot" and at other
> times cold.  Europe, South America, the west coast, and further can sound
> like next door at times and not be there at all others.  Close contacts can
> sometimes be as hard or harder to make than DX. Whenever I operate the ARRL
> Sweepstakes in November, the Southern New Jersey section is actually one of
> the trickier ones for me to get.
> 
> In general, 80m is probably your best chance of making a local contact on
> HF, all factors being equal.  Be patient.  You're probably not doing
> anything wrong.  With practice, you'll find what works best at your QTH.  I
> contacted John, W2FDJ operating K2AA/100 the other night on 80m LSB with
> ease but have a hard time hearing the folks south of me when they operate
> 40m CW.
> 
> One other thing; for now I would not concern myself too much with the
> polarity of your HF antenna.  While it certainly matters to some extent, it
> is nothing like the effect this has on VHF, UHF, and microwave signals.  On
> 10m it maybe a little more pronounced but I wouldn't start building new
> antennas just to overcome this.  When a signal skips off the ionosphere
> (like it does for all DX contacts) any polarization that was used to
> transmit is lost so there is no point in trying to match polarization for DX
> contacts.
> 
> Good luck,
> Bob - KE2D
> 
> -----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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