Nor mine. I wish I had applied for it when it was still available. The ARRL deep-sixed it along with the 'Rag Chewer's Club' and the 'Friendship Award' in 2004. I do have a 'Rag Chewer's Club' certificate.
OM or OC (Old Chap) used to exclusively carry a fraternal inference. For me, when I was a young ham, sending Morse using a station which today would be considered an anacronysm, being called "OM" on air was more a 'welcome to the fraternity' signal. However, now with this trendy contempt of age and the aged ( like me it's become a pejorative term in many cases, due to the 'blame the boomer' trend. The best response is a life well lived. 73 de Ray ..._ ._
Hi Chip, I agree that "OM" has been and is a title of respect, usually awarded when a radio amateur progresses into the mainstream of privledges. Casting off any aura of being a silly petulant beginner aka Novice. My point was simply meant to be the context of "OM" used in the OP title seems perjorative in tone. Of course becoming a true veteran OM does take a bit of seasoning. I was proud to become eligble for membership in the QCWA - but now I've also long qualified for the OOTC ! Hmmmm... Despite distressing current affairs like your recent harrowing experience in NYC at GCT (yikes!) I hope to mingle with good friends like you again at Hamcation or in Xenia next year! Happy Cheerful Holidays to y'all ! 73, John, WØPV
Thanks John, How did the Kinks say it? "I don't feel safe in this world no more I don't want to die in a nuclear war I wanna sail away to a distant shore And live like an Apeman' Likely many here share that sentiment: we can keep each other company and manifest a positive mien:-> I for one really enjoy seeing these travel treks with radio....such as this thread. 73 Chip W1YW
Forgot to hook the coax up to the antenna and the tuner found a match, worked a station in Louisiana with the coax laying on the ground
RF finds any low impedance path, or the lowest impedance path. Likely your system is grounded, in which case the RF may have made something other than the coax a radiating element: grounding wire, for example (but not limited to that). In that case, the RF in the coax will likely be out of phase--in phase is why coax normally does NOT radiate-- and the coax becomes a portion of the radiating antenna. As a a 'surface' antenna, depending on the ground characteristics, the coax and the other 'grounded' portion are a poor --NVIS-- antenna. Why is why you worked Lousisiana and not Moldova. 73 Chip W1YW
Well, let me correct the typos here... "Which is why you worked..." " RF in the coax will not phase cancel--which is why coax normally does NOT radiate--" Once in a while Dragon (speech recognition) takes my dictation down the wrong path. Such as above. 73 Chip W1YW
Any idea how to model this phenomenon? The QTH of one of my friends is on a near sheer drop off of 500-600 ft, we put up his first antenna completely wrong (maybe 4 ft off the ground) and yet he got amazing DX, I assumed it was a side-effect of the drop off, but I have no idea how to predict it / model it.
So the antenna works better when there are more listeners? Is there an equation for that? Sad ham....
The best antenna is the one you have with you and that is practical to set up. Isn't the purpose of SOTA to make contacts? Sound like a good antenna to me if that is the bar. SAD HAMMY
