If one is good, two must be TWICE as good

Readers are able to discern my obsessions with antennas and DX. It's my drug of choice, thank you very much. No booze, no drugs, no tobacco. Just antennas and DX. I can't ever be satisfied. Just like Michelle Pfeiffer said in her role as Elivra Hancock in the move SCARFACE, "Nothing exeeds like excess." Here's another blogger who captures my thougths well.

Back to my obsession: antennas and DX. When I get to the new QTH, I will be cooking with gas! I plan to bust up some serious pileups after October with my plans.

I did some more simulations for the new QTH for 20 meters, since sunspots are not going to improve soon enough to get me to where I need to be on 15 and 10 for long haul DX.

Here's what I have concluded for 20 meters at the new QTH:

• I will put up two 20 meter hex yagis - one at 32 feet and one at 64 feet


• I will feed the two yagis in phase


• Instead of using a tower, I will use a rope suspension system. I will raise the two antennas and suspend them from a cross-rope at 70 feet. The ropes will use a pulley to connect them at the T junction.


• I will use a pneumatic tennis ball launcher to set up the ropes

Take a look at the NEC pattern here: blue is what I had at the old QTH for a single hex at 32 feet, green is what I had planned with a single hex at 64 feet, and black is the two hexes fed in phase. YOWZA!


In the meantime, here at the old QTH, I heard 9M2CNC on 20 CW on the bobtail antenna. Q3 copy. I was not able to work him. But this is important: it's the first time I have EVER heard a 9M station in my 30+ years of hamming. And it's the first time in a long time that I heard SE Asia. Granted it is prime propagation time with the autumnal equinox cycle, but with our conditions in the doldrums this is a reflection upon the effectiveness of the bobtail. Not quite enough to get INTO SE Asia, but a LOT better than my other antennas.

73 and good DX