New vertical antenna

[w4pjh]

Hello,

I installed a brand new Hustler 4BTV yesterday ground mount with 20 radials. I had previously been using an ANTRON 99 20 feet up with a tuner for 20 meters. Today, I'm hearing a ton of stateside qso's, seems to be way more than I used to hear on 20. 40 too for that matter. I'm not, however, hearing any DX stations at the moment on either band. With the antron, a few days ago, I worked the UK, Crete, Italy, and Serbia. Is it just the band today, or, have a made a grave mistake? Is it a good sign that I can here and work the entire US and the paths across the water just aren't open now, or, have I "upgraded" to an antenna installation that won't ever work DX?

[cu2jt]

Name a frequency on 20M and I will listen for you

[w4pjh]

14.238

[cu2jt]

OK, I will be there in 5 minutes, 1550 UTC

[w4pjh]

Thanks!!!

[cu2jt]

Piece of cake, Randall. You are in the log.

[w4pjh]

Well, You 5/7 ALMOST the whole time!!! QSB is kind of bad. BUT, the best part is, IT WORKS JUST FINE!!! Thanks so much Gary for the help AND for my first contact into Portugal!!!

73

[cu2jt]

My pleasure, Randall. Try to check in on the Century Club net tonight at 2330 UTC on 7178 KHz and we will work on that band too.

[w4pjh]

Will do!!!

[w3dub]

Randall. if you are on the century club tonight.. give me a call too .. I don't have your state yet. I can give you Pennsylvania if you don't have it.

Gary.. I wonder if I could work you on 20.. I need Portugal... but for some strange reason, my signal seems to skip over much of western europe...

[WB2WIK]

Quote[/b] (KB3JGU @ April 05 2007,09:37)]Randall. if you are on the century club tonight.. give me a call too .. I don't have your state yet. I can give you Pennsylvania if you don't have it.

Gary.. I wonder if I could work you on 20.. I need Portugal... but for some strange reason, my signal seems to skip over much of western europe...
That's actually impossible.

You can skip over anyplace at a certain point in time, but the skip zone for everyone continuously moves as the position of the sun moves, so you can't "always" skip over western Europe.

Try an hour earlier or an hour later.

WB2WIK/6

[N2RJ]

Quote[/b] (KB3JGU @ April 05 2007,11:37)]Randall. if you are on the century club tonight.. give me a call too .. I don't have your state yet. I can give you Pennsylvania if you don't have it.

Gary.. I wonder if I could work you on 20.. I need Portugal... but for some strange reason, my signal seems to skip over much of western europe...
Gary is not in portugal.

Well technically not.

[K3VR]

The Hustler is a good multiband vertical. As an experiment, I used a 5BTV on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 exclusively for a year. It was ground mounted, with 50 radials, all 16 feet in length. The group of short radials worked very well even on 40 and 80m.

I worked all 50 states and lots of DX including VK and JA many times, using only 100 watts. On 40 and 80m it was better than a dedicated dipole hung at 1/2 wavelength, after about 1,000 miles. Closer than 1,000 miles, the dipole was consistently better, but for DX contacts the vertical always worked better than the dipole.

Occasionally the vertical worked better than a directional 3 element beam at 55 feet. To Kuwait and Antarctica on 20m, for example, the vertical was 10 dB better than the beam. That example's not typical. See DX Engineering for customer installations, pictures, etc.

By the way, QRZ has a sked page where you can schedule your QSOs.

QRZ SKED MANAGER (http://www.qrz.com/ib-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=SF;f=25)

[cu2jt]

Quote[/b] (K3VR @ April 05 2007,11:07)]....

By the way, QRZ has a sked page where you can schedule your QSOs.

....
This was a very ad hoc "sked". I happened to be logged in on QRZ.com when I saw this new topic show up. Since I take an interest in vertical antennas (have one myself) I read the post and just for fun told Randall that he could try me...

The rest is history and, OK, the correspondence that followed should perhaps been done on the messenger... Sorry...

[K3VR]

Don't worry about it, just an FYI for n00b's who may be reading and unaware of the sked board.

[w3dub]

Quote[/b] (WB2WIK @ April 05 2007,13:55)]That's actually impossible.

You can skip over anyplace at a certain point in time, but the skip zone for everyone continuously moves as the position of the sun moves, so you can't "always" skip over western Europe.

Try an hour earlier or an hour later.

WB2WIK/6
Point taken... but it seems my most successful contacts are always in eastern Europe.. I've had trouble making contacts in western Europe for some reason.. I do operate at about the same time everyday..but have tried for WE stations and they seem not to hear me.

[w4pjh]

Quote[/b] (KB3JGU @ April 05 2007,09:37)]Randall. if you are on the century club tonight.. give me a call too .. I don't have your state yet. I can give you Pennsylvania if you don't have it.

Gary.. I wonder if I could work you on 20.. I need Portugal... but for some strange reason, my signal seems to skip over much of western europe...
I'll be glad to...

[cu2jt]

Quote[/b] (KB3JGU @ April 05 2007,09:37)]Randall. if you are on the century club tonight.. give me a call too .. I don't have your state yet. I can give you Pennsylvania if you don't have it.

Gary.. I wonder if I could work you on 20.. I need Portugal... but for some strange reason, my signal seems to skip over much of western europe...
Ed, you could have worked me on the 40M Century Club net - I had a decent copy on you (abt 55) but you choosed AG4PP instead...

[w4pjh]

Thanks again, Gary!!!

[N2RJ]

Quote[/b] (KB3JGU @ April 05 2007,17:32)]Quote[/b] (WB2WIK @ April 05 2007,13:55)]That's actually impossible.

You can skip over anyplace at a certain point in time, but the skip zone for everyone continuously moves as the position of the sun moves, so you can't "always" skip over western Europe.

Try an hour earlier or an hour later.

WB2WIK/6
Point taken... but it seems my most successful contacts are always in eastern Europe.. I've had trouble making contacts in western Europe for some reason.. I do operate at about the same time everyday..but have tried for WE stations and they seem not to hear me.
Go back and re-learn the theory about propagation, the "F" layer and what is called gray line.

And by that I mean go and pick up a book and read, not just memorizing the question pool.

It will give you a clue about what's happening and will help you make sense out of what others have said in this thread.

Then it will go off in your head like a lightbulb why you can only work/hear eastern europe and not western europe.

[cu2jt]

Quote[/b] (KI4HDW @ April 05 2007,17:38)]Thanks again, Gary!!!
You were one of the strongest stations - be happy with your new vertical. I certainly works ! Edit: And congrats on working Dwayne up in Thule, Greenland !

The only antenna I have is a 33ft plain alu-tube with a coax stub to match it on 20M and a MFJ962D to match it on other bands.

[w4pjh]

Well I discoverd today that it was way long!!! So I had to resort to moving the traps a bit. Now it resonates just beautifully on all bands!!!

[cu2jt]

Quote[/b] (AB2MH @ April 05 2007,17:39)]Quote[/b] (KB3JGU @ April 05 2007,17:32)]Quote[/b] (WB2WIK @ April 05 2007,13:55)]That's actually impossible.

You can skip over anyplace at a certain point in time, but the skip zone for everyone continuously moves as the position of the sun moves, so you can't "always" skip over western Europe.

Try an hour earlier or an hour later.

WB2WIK/6
Point taken... but it seems my most successful contacts are always in eastern Europe.. I've had trouble making contacts in western Europe for some reason.. I do operate at about the same time everyday..but have tried for WE stations and they seem not to hear me.
Go back and re-learn the theory about propagation, the "F" layer and what is called gray line.
....
The position of the grey lines (sunrise and sunset) can be checked on this excellent link, which also shows the MUF (Max usuable frequency).

World Map (http://www.spacew.com/www/realtime.php)

[KA4DPO]

I had a 4BTV for several years down in Florida. It worked like a champ but the salt air finally got to the traps and I wound up getting a Butternut which also worked very well.

I never had any problems with DX using either antenna and I only had 16 radials.

[w3dub]

Quote[/b] (cu2jt @ April 05 2007,21:03)]Quote[/b] (AB2MH @ April 05 2007,17:39)]Quote[/b] (KB3JGU @ April 05 2007,17:32)]Quote[/b] (WB2WIK @ April 05 2007,13:55)]That's actually impossible.

You can skip over anyplace at a certain point in time, but the skip zone for everyone continuously moves as the position of the sun moves, so you can't "always" skip over western Europe.

Try an hour earlier or an hour later.

WB2WIK/6
Point taken... but it seems my most successful contacts are always in eastern Europe.. I've had trouble making contacts in western Europe for some reason.. I do operate at about the same time everyday..but have tried for WE stations and they seem not to hear me.
Go back and re-learn the theory about propagation, the "F" layer and what is called gray line.
....
The position of the grey lines (sunrise and sunset) can be checked on this excellent link, which also shows the MUF (Max usuable frequency).

World Map (http://www.spacew.com/www/realtime.php)
Yeah, still learning how to best use that map yet.. but I do check it frequently. It is one of my bookmarks.

[w3dub]

HDW and JT... heard you both on tonight.. HDW your signal was one of the top five on the net tonight.. hope to work you both later on down the log...