About 6 years ago I bought an Super Antenna. It is a screw together
portable vertical. I had it clamped to a card table in my back yard. A
long time friend and I were out in the sun enjoying listening to a pile up
on 20 meters. I was using a 12v battery to power the station. I heard an
EL2 calling CQ. The pile up was huge and after the first bunch of calls I
imagined he was getting ready to call one back. The frequency went quiet,
so I slowly called him. When I let go of the mike button, the roar of the
pile up was even bigger. It went quiet again and he called us back. He was
in Liberia, and we ended up talking about Coffee for about 10 minutes. When
we got done the pile up came back and that frequency sounded more crowded
then Field Day. I went to finish the log book entry, and my friend asked me
"How much power were we running" so I got the brand new TW1 out of the house
and connected it. I had the power set to 10 wwats output. So there are
times when the power doesn't matter. The man in Liberia said that he came
back to us because even though we had a week signal we called when the
frequency was clear, and he also said that our Audio sounded better then
most that day.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:43 PM
Subject: Helping Hams
> I've been a member of several ham clubs over the years here in Denver. =
> The clubs with the older guys no longer could do tower and antenna work =
> and the other clubs were more social in nature and preferred getting =
> together to drink than to focus on ham radio. I was a member of the =
> Mile High DX Club for a year but discovered most of the members were of =
> the upper class economically speaking, running big huge towers and =
> amplifiers which could run 3, 4, and 5 KW output during a contest all =
> weekend straight, and they were not interested in someone with a pip =
> squeak of a station I ran. Strange, though. I worked as much DX as =
> they did and could out do any of them that were big contesters as far as =
> CW speed was concerned. If I worked any of them in a contest, they'd =
> always bump the speed up to quicken the exchange because they'd heard me =
> on the air running 50 and 60 words per minute back then so they knew. I =
> made friends with a neighbor ham who drove a yellow cab for a living. =
> We even took the cab once to a big ham DX club meeting where there was a =
> lot of socializing and drinking. I enjoyed the drunks more than the big =
> contesters; most of which you'd know if I mentioned their call signs. =
> My friend began helping me with some tower work because he and I lived =
> about 6 blocks apart and he had collected tower sections until he put up =
> a 130 foot tower. I'd go over to his place to operate but he, due to =
> his job, was ignored, as was I, at the DX club meeting so he and I both =
> dropped out and quit paying dues. I have a contest buddy in western =
> Colorado who used to own a 5 tower, big antenna farm, on top of a flat =
> mesa at 10,000 feet. He was a common old guy who just liked people so =
> over the years, he would drive over 200 miles to come and help me with =
> tower and antenna work. He still climbs but 200 miles is a long ways to =
> go just to put up a 40 meter rotary dipole and a 3 element 6 meter beam, =
> plus, he's in his early sixties now, too. The big contesters are =
> generally a different breed of ham; the real competitive types I'm =
> referring to. You know, the ones that live for getting into the top 10 =
> in every contest and who often have put thousands into tall towers and =
> wide spaced, multiple element, stacked beams. Bigger and taller means =
> more regular maintenance so you can see, since they have to either pay =
> for cranes and commercial tower workers to come and work on tower and =
> antenna maintenance, they might act a little different when you say you =
> have a 3 element tri bander up on a 3 foot tripod, and a 10 foot mast, =
> with an AR22 rotor from back in the fifties, all up at 20 feet above =
> ground. You ain't in their class, bro. I stop showing up for field =
> days, unless it was an individual private group instead of a club, =
> because the bigger the club, the more drunks we had. I finally decided, =
> even as a teenager hot to trot on running Field Day, that the rules for =
> FD were to see how many beers you could drink during a 24 to 30 hour =
> period. I learned quickly just how much tower work there is in having a =
> normal 2 element 40 meter beam at 70 feet due to wind load. Imagine =
> what it is like to have huge antennas, stacked, up 100 and 200 and 300 =
> foot contest towers. I knew a guy in Missouri that got, from a junk =
> yard where his friend worked, a 190 foot free standing satellite disk =
> tower. He hired a professional commercial company to put it up and he =
> guyed it and put a 2 element 80 meter beam on top of it. During the =
> installation of the tower, one of the professional workers slipped and =
> fell from the 120 foot level and was killed. He cancelled the project =
> for a year it got to him so badly. Eventually he got it up and the very =
> first winter, ice built up, plus wind load, and the 40 foot boom =
> cracked. He had to pay guys to help him drag it off the tower, then he =
> repaired the boom, and the commercial guys helped put it back up. So, =
> if you've got money, you'll find help and a lot quicker in most cases. =
> The biggest ham club in Denver used to have a volunteer group of guys =
> and if you were a club member, just 20 dollars a year, they would, when =
> you called for help, put you on a schedule and then two or three or four =
> guys, or whatever the job required, all show up and get everything done =
> you needed. The are bigger now and they discontinued that service. =
> Just a few thoughts of encouragement from a guy that thought his 7 =
> months of being a novice running 10 watts to a 100 foot untuned long =
> wire was the funnist time of his ham years. The only thing the has come =
> close is when I owned the 2 element 40 meter beam at 70 feet. My first =
> single band contest on 40 I worked 403 contacts in the first 24 hours, I =
> couldn't go 48 hours with that small amount of sleep, about 80 =
> countries, on 40 CW. I worked Japan long path beaming over South =
> America at 2 PM in the afternoon, down to southern Europe beaming long =
> path about 4 to 5 in the morning beaming to the southwest long path, and =
> I worked Europeans starting at 2:30 in the afternoon; long before the =
> sun set hour. I worked Israel right after getting the antenna up on =
> August the first with a 10 over S 9 signal and I was just using the =
> SB220 for an amp at the time. I've decided to drag the river bottom =
> till I find some assistance to at least get what undersized stuff up at =
> 40 feet this next summer. As I said before, my son is able to climb =
> that small of tower and fiddle with those smaller antennas so that =
> helps.
>
> Phil.
> K0NX
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