Peter Dougherty wrote:

Hardly. Right now I work from a condo with a 10m loop ten feet above the
ground. So far I worked all the major dx-peds within the 8000 miles
radius; the rest I couldn't hear. However, if all the stars align well,
I'll have my 200 footer next year.

Best of luck in doing so. You're also extremely fortunate to be living
on the west coast, however, where you have a *much* greater shot at
working the rare Asian and south pacific entities that are never even
a blip on my S-meter. Granted, I have an advantage on 80M, but I think
I'd rather have west-coast DX than east. Unfortunately, my Real Life
is on the east coast. sigh.

Uhm... you might want to reconsider this one. I also lived in Canada
(VA3GW) for eight years, so I know first hand the difference in
propagation. Of course, every part of the world has condx somewhere, but
at least on the East Coast you have free access to Europe almost all the
time, while EU signals are ancient history here on 10-15m, and on 17 and
lower they suffer from the auroral path attenuation, i.e. nothing heard.
Maybe no big deal for casual dxing, but there is no way in hell anyone
from the left coast ever wins any contest over the East Coasters. Right
now, there are days when I literally hear nothing on the bands (granted,
I only monitor 17m and up on account of the pathetic wire that passes
off as an antenna). Those napkins are starting to look good.

I like the weather much more than VE3, though...

Go, Raptors.

73 ... Zoran WA7AA






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