Contesting Online Survey

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Do you plan to enter the CQ WW DX Contest?
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Recently the RDXC committee reclassified P3F to high power from low power without publicly providing strong evidence that any infraction had occurred. They concluded was that the contestant was running HP on 80/40m but not full-time, just 10 minutes here and there without any convincing evidence. It appears they used the RBN as their source of information. Should the RXDC contest have to publicly provide convincing evidence before reclassifying a station from LP to HP?
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What's the average boom length of your contest beams? (Comments encouraged.)
Posted: Jun 10, 2001 (412 votes, 10 comments) by k2ua

Survey Results

12 feet or less 12% (51)

12-16 feet 7% (28)

16-24 feet 29% (120)

24-32 feet 25% (105)

32-40 feet 13% (55)

40-48 feet 8% (32)

More than 48 feet 5% (21)

Survey Comments

Boomlength

2 element quad with 8 foot boom. Amateur radio is after all, one of my hobbys.

Certainly dreams are made of long-boom monobanders. Reality dictates that I get the most bang for the "few bucks" that I allow myself to spend on all my hobbies.

Thus, the choice of a 2 element 5 band quad fits my needs (not my wants) and my budget. It is only at 45 feet, on a tower that was given to me.
Posted by W5WZ on July 20, 2001

Boomlengths @ N1RR

10M 2.5"x42ft 7L@100ft / KLM-6L@35ft 2"x27ft
10M 4-Stack: 2"x20ft from 12-4CD's
10M South-2-Stack 10-4CD or KLM10m5
15M Roto-2-Stack Mini-OWA-6L 3"x36ft 80/40'
15M Stack Plan: 2StkEU Wilson M155 2"x26ft
3StkEU 15-4CD 2"x24'
20M Stack Plan: 3-Stack Wilson M204 2"x26ft
20M JA-5L 3"x45ft RR-design Telrex
20M South-2-Stack 3L or 4L
40M Plan: Wilson 3L 3"x40ft + 40-2CD
80M Rohn 25G 4-Square / COMTEK
Horizontal something
160M Wire 2L GP / COMTEK / Horizontal dipole
Posted by Anonymous on July 16, 2001

connectors.

We should compare comparable. Small stations and big guns with more antennas for one band. Too long boom can be disadvantage on 10m - 48 ft is too much you do not cover the USA ! On the other hand 48 ft on 40m is small we have here 79ft.

73 !
Jiri, OK1RI
Posted by OK1RI on July 10, 2001

Boom lengths

Being limited to a suburban block of land, I have opted to only operate one HF band - 28MHz - allowing me to maximise my efforts. I will be increasing the mono bander boom from 24' to 36' (5 to 6 elements) before this years CQWW....what ever extra gain I can achieve is an absolute must when you are unable to operate QRO for the entire period of the contest!
Scott VK4JSR
Posted by Anonymous on June 21, 2001

Humble quads II

Comments on 2/2/2 quads were from Greg K8GL
([email protected])
Posted by Anonymous on June 15, 2001

Humble Quads

Last year I put a stack of 2/2/2 quads at 83'/57'/31' for 10 and 15. Boom length is 6 1/2'. Purists would laugh. Truth be known, I'd love the 48' booms mentioned above. However, this system dominates when conditions are right, plus it is flexible and affordable. Right now the bottom two only rotate 140 degrees....I plan on modifying that to 300 degrees this summer.
Posted by Anonymous on June 15, 2001

boom length of your contest beams

HF Yagis oround 10m long give me a measure of gain and good F/B. Using one pointed to NA and another to EU means 'instant' rotation with a A/B switch, and effective blocking for stations not in my intended direction. Often we hear 2~3 QSO's happening at the same time, same freq but diffent directions.
73 David VK2CZ
Posted by vk2cz on June 11, 2001

Hearing is believing

10M--->48' 15M---->48' 20M--->Soon_to_Be_76'
Posted by W4AN on June 11, 2001

Boom lengths

When you don't have easy access to tower help, maintainability is paramount. I find the Hy-Gain 26-foot booms on the 155 and 204 to be ideal for stacking on reasonable-size towers, and for handling either solo or with a ground crew of one person. (They also have ideal beamwidth for illuminating all of Europe from the eastern US.) I have five 26-foot-boom antennas stacked on one tower, and it's the right balance of performance and maintainability for me. The other tower has four 16-foot-boom antennas (Cushcraft 10-4CDs) and a 22-foot-boom 40-meter beam, as well as some VHF stuff--all in keeping with the same theme. Bigger isn't always better--it's a big jump to the 34-foot-boom Hy-Gain 205 and similar Cushcraft 20-meter beams, as well as >2-element 40-meter beams.
Posted by k2ua on June 11, 2001

5 ele monobandyagis for 10/15/20m
3 ele yagi for 40 m
regards DL7IO
Posted by Anonymous on June 11, 2001

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