DX RXThe Doctor of DX prescribes the |  |
DX RXThe Doctor of DX prescribes the | |
During the weekend of March 30th I had the honor of being asked to be a guest op for the CQ WW WPX (SSB) contest, one of the six major contests of each year. What was more exciting than the opportunity to guest op was the QTH - KY1H in the Western Massachusetts mountains. For those of you who know Dave or know of him, nothing further need be said. KY1H is, in the parlance of DX’ers and contesters, a super- station.
Located on top of a mountain at 2000’ ASL and with 33 acres to play with, Dave has (thus far) erected five towers ranging in height from 150 feet down to about 60 feet. Four of these towers are each dedicated to one ham band. For example, the 150-footer is dedicated to 20 Meters. There are seven 20 Meter multi-element yagis arrayed up and down the tower, with the largest, a six- element monster, at the top. At about the 75-80 foot level, there is a ring rotor and a wide-spaced four-element yagi. The remaining yagis are strapped to the tower and pointed in various strategic directions.
Between all towers and supported by them is a vast (and I do mean vast) array of slopers, 4-square, vertical, inverted-L and inverted- Vee wire antennas. Along ground level is a network of 10-foot high cable messengers and Beverage antenna arrays. All towers are fed with CATV hard-line and the Beverage Antennas are dual-direction arrays, giving Dave six different directions to choose from. All in all, some serious stuff.
The “shack” was equally impressive. Downstairs where the shack is located are six operator positions, one for each band (sans WARC). There is a seventh spotter position under construction. Each position is dedicated to one band only and there is no antenna switching between positions, eliminating a lot of confusion. Antennas for 160 Meters terminate at the corresponding 160 Meter operating position, etc., etc. Each of the operating positions sports a Kenwood TS-940 or 890 transceiver, a legal limit linear, Heil PRO headset, keyer, 386 computer and Digital Voice Processor for use with the K1EA CT contest software, and tailored antenna controls. Of course all computers are networked together with the CT software, and Dave also provides another “monitoring” computer upstairs in the living/kitchen area of the house where the “off duty” gang can gather and watch the action, without disturbing the operators downstairs. Outside the shack there is a bunkroom which will sleep four, a large coffee “mess”, and complete bathroom. On behalf of the distaff membership and readership of our fair journal I popped the following question to Dave, “Dave, how does your wife put up with all of this?” His reply was “What wife?” Ah Ha! Now we know the secret. I should have known not to ask such a silly question. On second inspection of the QTH, I duly noted that the bathrooms, living and dining area sported nothing but technical journals, QST and CQ magazines. There were a few (not many) dirty dishes in the sink, there was a large jar of peanut butter on the kitchen counter, and the fridge held a year’s supply of Sam Adams and little else. When I told my XYL about the place, she observed that it sounded to her like a real “Male-bonding shtick layout”. OH YEAH!!!
So now the obvious retorts: “Thirty-three
acres! C’mon, gimme a break! I live on
1/3-acre.” “My XYL would never allow me
to put up all that aluminum.” “I can’t even
get into the one bathroom we have at my
house, nor the spare bedroom.” “I can’t
really afford one TS-940 and a computer, let
alone six.” “The guy obviously does not
have anything else to spend his money on.”
Those responses are typical and very valid.
Yet, most of us (WB4MDC excepted) would
love to be able to work that rare one and
enjoy QSO’ing with our DX brethren. Well,
can we have our cake and eat it too?
Probably....with qualifications. There are
four factors which determine how successful
a DX’er is:
You may have a serious Antenna “farm” like KY1H and not be able to communicate further than your immediate vicinity if the rig doesn’t “deliver the goods.” On the other hand, given the world’s greatest transceiver, your “coathanger” antenna won’t hack it either. Well, which is more important? The answer, which all of you know, is they are equally important. But, as in life, we must face a complex array of compromises along the path to success. Two serious limiting factors are cost constraints and available space, both for shack and antennas. Hey, nobody promised you a rose garden, Boopie. Successfully overcoming limiting factors and finding the right mix of compromises can be as exciting as the challenge of snagging the rare one in a massive pileup.
When choosing a rig, the DX’er will be carefully evaluating the following points, not necessarily in order of importance:
On the other hand, if you are going to purchase a new rig, do your research. QST, starting with the January 1996 issue, now publishes extensive technical information on the rigs reviewed, and they also publish separate extended reports which can be purchased for a few bucks. State of the art rigs now go for better than $3000 (and up and up). It is worth your time, but more especially your money, to select “at leisure” and wisely. If possible, “test drive” the rigs you have narrowed your choices to. And don’t limit your “test drive” to several hours. Try a week or two. I speak from a great deal of experience in that department.
OK, so now we know we can use a good- quality used rig with reasonable selectivity and sensitivity, into which we can breathe some extended life by means of an external DSP. If we exercise due care in our purchase it most likely will not cost us an arm and a leg. What about antennas? Well, what type of DX’ing do you want to do? Low band, high band, all band? Casual or serious? How much available space do you have and how much money can you afford to spend on antennas and towers, wires, poles, rotators, coax, etc., etc.? The joker in the back of the room who said “None” go stand in the corner.
If you live in town and your real estate is very severely restricted, look to the sky. Your compromises lie on a vertical plane. If your house is two-story or more, you might consider what I did for ten years. I bought a great TA-36 from John Keller, NF1N, and installed it on a roof-mounted tower. That antenna, together with an inverted Vee slung from an Oak tree, netted me in excess of 250 countries, and two years of that time I was away. I spent a lot of on-air time, yes, but I mostly did it during contests, when great numbers of DX stations crawl out of the woodwork. Recently Ed, K2TE, gave me a TA-33 Jr. which I mounted on 15 feet of Radio Shack mast atop my roof. I am rotating that lightweight with an Archer TV Rotator! On March 31 of this year I worked Hong Kong and Thailand with it on 20 meters. Since installing that antenna last summer I have increased my DX country tally by 25. Another option for the real estate challenged is the use of multi-band verticals, either roof mounted or ground mounted if you have a patch of back yard. The R7, I’m told, is a great multi-band vertical and has it’s own built-in ground plane. Ground-mounted or roof-mounted all-band verticals such as the AP8A require a series of radials. Study the literature carefully to ensure you have sufficient room to run them. Those radials are vital.
If you have 1/3 acre or more of real estate, you may wish to consider a tower. Towers can be purchased very cheaply by watching the bulletins on the DX cluster or your local BBS. All towers at KY1H are Rohn 25G stock except for the 150-footer, which is Rohn 45. Your choice of tower will largely depend on how many antennas you will have swinging around in the breeze at the top. KY1H’s 15 Meter tower is Rohn 25 and there is one 8-element Long John at the top, but three more 3 and 4-element yagis bolted to the tower in fixed positions at differing heights. These towers have withstood 80+ MPH winds. With a tower, you open a new box of choices. The possibilities are quite extensive and your engineering skills now really kick into overdrive. And I might add that high is not necessarily better. On average, 60 feet or so of tower will do wonders for you, given you have a well- matched beam up there, and/or slopers and verticals being supported by it. A tower can also be shunt-fed on 80/160, depending on height. Antennas on top act as capacitive loading hats. Again, refer to ON4UN’s excellent book on Low-band DX’ing for ideas about using the tower to aid your low band efforts. The ARRL Antenna Book edited by Dean Straw, N6BV, is another invaluable addition to your library. Between those two books, you should be able to keep busy for a century or so.
Alright, so what’s the bottom line? Look at your resources, your real estate, your spouse’s tolerance threshold, etc., and, based upon sound engineering principles, go out and buy 150 feet of tower, eight monobanders and an FT-1000MP. Joking.....just joking. But do look carefully at what you presently have or can afford, decide upon what you wish to do, and then carefully engineer a station which fits those goals. If you already own a good transceiver, spend more time and money at present engineering your antenna farm. The investment there will pay big dividends in completing more DX QSO’s.
Next month we’ll discuss the other two factors which affect your success as a DX’er and/or contester: Propagation and Operating Practices. In the meantime 73 es best DX.
73 de NE1V