Rolling skip, hitting locals.
 

The Imax is kicking butt. I made my first Ham contact on 10 meters in Texas.
When I told him he was my first ham contact, he got more excited than I got. I
figured after coax losses, I am probably only getting out 15-20 watts on SSB. I
am only getting out 6 watts on AM.

As far as CB and locals, they couldn't believe it was me because they barely
heard me with the Firestik in the attic. This Imax seems to excel on receive. It
is super quiet with no static.

Vinnie S.

Vinnie S. wrote:
The Imax is kicking butt. I made my first Ham contact on 10 meters in
Texas. When I told him he was my first ham contact, he got more excited
than I got. I figured after coax losses, I am probably only getting out
15-20 watts on SSB. I am only getting out 6 watts on AM.

As far as CB and locals, they couldn't believe it was me because they
barely heard me with the Firestik in the attic. This Imax seems to excel
on receive. It is super quiet with no static.

Vinnie S.

Sounds like it's time for a 30L1 or similar. Hows the tvi/rf looking?

On 08 Jun 2005 01:53:57 GMT, Steveo wrote:

Vinnie S. wrote:
The Imax is kicking butt. I made my first Ham contact on 10 meters in
Texas. When I told him he was my first ham contact, he got more excited
than I got. I figured after coax losses, I am probably only getting out
15-20 watts on SSB. I am only getting out 6 watts on AM.

As far as CB and locals, they couldn't believe it was me because they
barely heard me with the Firestik in the attic. This Imax seems to excel
on receive. It is super quiet with no static.

Vinnie S.

Sounds like it's time for a 30L1 or similar. Hows the tvi/rf looking?


No TVI here whatsoever. I doubt any nighbors will get TVI, they are farther
away. Also, I think one of the benefits of that ground plane kit was ro reduce
TVI.

But the receive is incredible with this antenna.

Vinnie S.

Vinnie S. wrote:
On 08 Jun 2005 01:53:57 GMT, Steveo wrote:

Vinnie S. wrote:
The Imax is kicking butt. I made my first Ham contact on 10 meters in
Texas. When I told him he was my first ham contact, he got more
excited than I got. I figured after coax losses, I am probably only
getting out 15-20 watts on SSB. I am only getting out 6 watts on AM.

As far as CB and locals, they couldn't believe it was me because they
barely heard me with the Firestik in the attic. This Imax seems to
excel on receive. It is super quiet with no static.

Vinnie S.

Sounds like it's time for a 30L1 or similar. Hows the tvi/rf looking?

No TVI here whatsoever. I doubt any nighbors will get TVI, they are
farther away. Also, I think one of the benefits of that ground plane kit
was ro reduce TVI.

But the receive is incredible with this antenna.

Vinnie S.

Sweet, good ears usually means it's working. Did you buy an HF rig?

"Vinnie S." wrote in message
...
The Imax is kicking butt. I made my first Ham contact on 10 meters in
Texas.
When I told him he was my first ham contact, he got more excited than I
got. I
figured after coax losses, I am probably only getting out 15-20 watts on
SSB. I
am only getting out 6 watts on AM.

As far as CB and locals, they couldn't believe it was me because they
barely
heard me with the Firestik in the attic. This Imax seems to excel on
receive. It
is super quiet with no static.

Vinnie S.


Hello, Vinnie

Try and remember that 10 and 11 meters are not a whole lot different for
local contacts than 6 or 2 meters. Unless you have an antenna mounted
*high*, don't expect extended local communications.

At a 20 watt level, you won't be lighting up the sky, so to speak, to be
able to use tropospheric scatter to extend the range, so you can expect
about a 10 mile range if your antenna is mounted 50 feet up. Then you will
get little, if any coverage, until you are out hundreds or thousands of
miles. Then, you start getting coverage due to reflection from either the F
layer or sporadic E. The area in between is your "skip" zone. This is why
you can work a distant station and many locals either cannot hear you or
receive you weakly.

An amp will allow you to take advantage of tropopheric scatter. This is
very similar to the big searchlights which you can see the beam from for
many miles although you can't see the lamp itself. This can give you
coverage for hundreds of miles.

Judicious choice of operating frequency can allow you to work all kinds of
distances with relatively low power. I broke into a cw net in the South
(Carolinas) one time running but milliwatts. That was on 80 meters. At
lower frequencies, you can take advantage of the E or F layers to get
reflection to other areas closer to you than higher frequencies. Generally,
frequencies under perhaps 10 MHz will do well at night and frequencies from
perhaps 6 to 18 MHz will do well during the day. Once we get good sunspots
going, frequencies up to 30 MHz will do well during the day.


73 from Rochester, NY
Jim

On 08 Jun 2005 02:06:06 GMT, Steveo wrote:

Vinnie S. wrote:
On 08 Jun 2005 01:53:57 GMT, Steveo wrote:

Vinnie S. wrote:
The Imax is kicking butt. I made my first Ham contact on 10 meters in
Texas. When I told him he was my first ham contact, he got more
excited than I got. I figured after coax losses, I am probably only
getting out 15-20 watts on SSB. I am only getting out 6 watts on AM.

As far as CB and locals, they couldn't believe it was me because they
barely heard me with the Firestik in the attic. This Imax seems to
excel on receive. It is super quiet with no static.

Vinnie S.

Sounds like it's time for a 30L1 or similar. Hows the tvi/rf looking?

No TVI here whatsoever. I doubt any nighbors will get TVI, they are
farther away. Also, I think one of the benefits of that ground plane kit
was ro reduce TVI.

But the receive is incredible with this antenna.

Vinnie S.

Sweet, good ears usually means it's working. Did you buy an HF rig?


This fall.

Vinnie S.

On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 02:17:33 GMT, "Jim Hampton" wrote:


Hello, Vinnie

Try and remember that 10 and 11 meters are not a whole lot different for
local contacts than 6 or 2 meters. Unless you have an antenna mounted
*high*, don't expect extended local communications.

At a 20 watt level, you won't be lighting up the sky, so to speak, to be
able to use tropospheric scatter to extend the range, so you can expect
about a 10 mile range if your antenna is mounted 50 feet up. Then you will
get little, if any coverage, until you are out hundreds or thousands of
miles. Then, you start getting coverage due to reflection from either the F
layer or sporadic E. The area in between is your "skip" zone. This is why
you can work a distant station and many locals either cannot hear you or
receive you weakly.

An amp will allow you to take advantage of tropopheric scatter. This is
very similar to the big searchlights which you can see the beam from for
many miles although you can't see the lamp itself. This can give you
coverage for hundreds of miles.

Judicious choice of operating frequency can allow you to work all kinds of
distances with relatively low power. I broke into a cw net in the South
(Carolinas) one time running but milliwatts. That was on 80 meters. At
lower frequencies, you can take advantage of the E or F layers to get
reflection to other areas closer to you than higher frequencies. Generally,
frequencies under perhaps 10 MHz will do well at night and frequencies from
perhaps 6 to 18 MHz will do well during the day. Once we get good sunspots
going, frequencies up to 30 MHz will do well during the day.


73 from Rochester, NY
Jim


I am doing much better with locals than I was before. I am just surprised at the
DX I am getting with little power.

Vinnie S.

Steveo wrote:
Vinnie S. wrote:
The Imax is kicking butt. I made my first Ham contact on 10 meters in
Texas. When I told him he was my first ham contact, he got more excited
than I got. I figured after coax losses, I am probably only getting out
15-20 watts on SSB. I am only getting out 6 watts on AM.

As far as CB and locals, they couldn't believe it was me because they
barely heard me with the Firestik in the attic. This Imax seems to
excel on receive. It is super quiet with no static.

Vinnie S.

Sounds like it's time for a 30L1 or similar. Hows the tvi/rf looking?

Hey Jay, reckon his antenna can handle a 30L1?

On 17 Jun 2005 05:00:51 GMT, Steveo wrote:

Steveo wrote:
Vinnie S. wrote:
The Imax is kicking butt. I made my first Ham contact on 10 meters in
Texas. When I told him he was my first ham contact, he got more excited
than I got. I figured after coax losses, I am probably only getting out
15-20 watts on SSB. I am only getting out 6 watts on AM.

As far as CB and locals, they couldn't believe it was me because they
barely heard me with the Firestik in the attic. This Imax seems to
excel on receive. It is super quiet with no static.

Vinnie S.

Sounds like it's time for a 30L1 or similar. Hows the tvi/rf looking?

Hey Jay, reckon his antenna can handle a 30L1?


I am not so sure. Is that 1,000 watts? Won't the antenna melt?

Vinnie S.

"Vinnie S." wrote in message
...
On 17 Jun 2005 05:00:51 GMT, Steveo wrote:

Steveo wrote:
Vinnie S. wrote:
The Imax is kicking butt. I made my first Ham contact on 10 meters in
Texas. When I told him he was my first ham contact, he got more
excited
than I got. I figured after coax losses, I am probably only getting
out
15-20 watts on SSB. I am only getting out 6 watts on AM.

As far as CB and locals, they couldn't believe it was me because they
barely heard me with the Firestik in the attic. This Imax seems to
excel on receive. It is super quiet with no static.

Vinnie S.

Sounds like it's time for a 30L1 or similar. Hows the tvi/rf looking?

Hey Jay, reckon his antenna can handle a 30L1?


I am not so sure. Is that 1,000 watts? Won't the antenna melt?

Vinnie S.

Hello, Vinnie

I'm not sure the 30L1 would do 1,000 watts. We used a KWM-2 and a 30L1 in
the #2 position at the KG6AAY hamshack. The #1 position used a Henry 2K.

The legal limit back then was 1,000 watts dc input to the final (not 1,500
watts pep output like today). My guess is the 30L1 might put out 600 watts
pep. The Henry was capable of considerably more. Exactly what the 30L-1
could do, however, I'm not entirely sure.

I've seen that Henry putting out 1200 watts average on voice peaks on SSB
and even more on cw ;)

Of course, that couldn't touch that RCA monster that was used once. Hooked
to a rhombic 200 feet in the air and 600 feet on a leg, it pumped some
40,000 watts output. It could punch a hole through an almost dead band
(everyone was running S-2 and it was 40 over 9 back in the states from Guam
Island). :))


Best regards from Rochester, NY
Jim