Ground losses, wet soil (dirt) vs dry soil..

[Slowmover]

My go-to reference for when skips a rollin’ on AM-19 in the States is a particular truck wash on IH-40 near Nashville and can be heard anywhere west of the Rocky Mountains.

The Exit 87 BBQ Stand near Jackson, same way.

Factors other than soil composition may play their part, but it’s an uncanny quality, nevertheless.

The Grand Ol’ Opry was famously broadcast on maybe the best known Blaw-Knox tower, the 800’ WSM construction at Nashville, TN. Night time clear channel radio with awesome coverage.

The WSM tower was also a backup to USN submarine communications during WWII although hundreds of miles inland.

Central TN, and extending west, has some enviable characteristics.

.

 

[TheBlaster]

I am pleased to say the contact hit rate picked up on the Sporadic E DX side the last 2 days. (Although I switched antenna to the Gain Master which may just be coincidental??? Jury is out on that.) But I worked 10-12 countries in Europe in 2 x 4 hour outings, even creating some mini pile ups where I had more stations than I could control on the channel, giving my details to 3 station call signs in one go, lol. Most interesting copy was Algeria N. Africa... was hard work but I stuck at it with the calling and got through despite him being a S0-S1 R2-3 copy.

 

[Justme]

Having spend lots of time "perfecting" my antenna setup makes sure that when we are in a no sunspot time like now i still can make decent contacts even on the higher bands with the choice of the Imax 2000 on 10/12/15/18 or the OCF at 40 feet up.
On the low bands the same lengthened OCF for 160 and vertical 77 feet with autotuner and heathkit SB-1000 on 160/80/40/20 gives me also the choice between horizontal/vertical antenna whichever works best.
Remember i live on a plot of 100 x 25 feet.... and have understanding neighbours i will help as well if need be.

Reason was that i could dig some radials also in their plot of land.
Having a station that only works well when the sunspots are out is easy, it is this time with 0 sunspot activety when the real important part of your station, the antenna system, becomes clear.
One reason i use "overkill" UHF coaxial cable that practically have no loss on H.F, only the best connectors will do, from 2 meter and up only N connectors and 7/8 coax.

My transceivers? FT 100, FT 847 with Collins filters, FT2000-D and the new FT 991 A.
Better spend your money on the antenna system as buying a fancy transceiver with mediocre antenna system.
Most DX is done barefoot with 100 watts, it is seldom i need to use the SB-1000 and even then mostly on 160 meters.
Running clean audio from my MD-1 Microphone, EQplus and no equaliser or processor used in the transceivers, just using the compressor limiter and downwards expander of the EQplus, and tone controls.
With every radio always getting good audio reports unsollicitated.
Watch the ALC, and you are set.

It is better to spend 8K on your antenna system and a middle class radio as spending 10K on the fancy radio and 100 bucks on your antenna system.
Running amplifiers only benefits when your antenna system also can hear the other station.
If that is not the case a 10K radio won't change that.

 

[Low_Boy]

I heard dirt or moist soil is a better ground plain then sandy soil. Tom from zero five antennas told me that.

 

[Road Squawker]

...

The Exit 87 BBQ Stand near Jackson, same way...
Central TN, and extending west, has some enviable characteristics.

.

I went thru Jackson last week and made a point of stopping at that BBQ shack (and "shack" is the correct term)............

Good BBQ,........... the antenna is just an A99 mounted about 30 feet to the feedpoint, using mini 8 coax.

 

[Slowmover]

I went thru Jackson last week and made a point of stopping at that BBQ shack (and "shack" is the correct term)............

Good BBQ,........... the antenna is just an A99 mounted about 30 feet to the feedpoint, using mini 8 coax.

Be sure to tell everyone that not only can they get out NATIONWIDE with a plain Antron 99 thru cheap truckstop coax, but that there is NOTHING better!!

(Is too funny).

Miami to Minneapolis.
Brownsville to Bangor

On the AM monster, a GALAXY.
Daily. Year after year.

When conditions are poor, I have to wait till I’m no more than 70-miles east on IH40 to place my same order:

The takes-two-hands-to-eat-it pulled pork sandwich with everything, (spicy). $6.00

.

 

[Justme]

Moist soil is better as sandy dry soil, here it is young seaclay up to 150 years back the sea came inland here regularly.
The salty and mineral rich clay is an excellent reflector for your far off field, and of course close by your antenna forms a good reflector for the ground wave important on 160, low angle DX.
The soilis important up to 20 or 30 miles away from your antenna set up.
Living near the sea it can make out 10+ dB in your signal strength.
Give it a try if you are close to the sea, set up a vertical in the sea, close to the shore in undeep water and you will be surprised.

 

[TheBlaster]

Yes being near sea is perfect. Being high up second best. As you say Justme..good antenna installs shine when the skip is down, in fact they REALLY shine because the stations that cannot hear think the band is dead and you can crack on, less user QRM and even better ears for remote stations and DX stations.

Although in saying that you still need a bit of help from nature/atmos otherwise you will be only talking nationally.

You are right about the Coax as well. I use 1 single 10m run of RG-213 UBX portable here, if you can let me know if there is an even better coax that would be great ? UHF type you say ? I am interested in brand or spec of cable thanks.

(I checked up Ultraflex 10 and at 10m length at 11m band would only reduce loss by 0.1dB I am not sure that saving is noticeable)

I will likely never use a beam, I like Omni's and squeezing the last bit of performance from them. I think the Gain Master is the one for me. With an Omni there is no "shooting fish in a barrel" feeling as someone once said, that I recall.

You have to work for it a bit, and some times you cannot break through but it creates a challenge.

 

[Justme]

For HF i mostly use Aircom+ and for VHF and UHF i use ecoflex 15, that will set you back 7 Euro's a meter....
The Aircom plus is about 3 bucks a meter, normally that is used for VHF/UHF.
https://www.transonic-electronics.nl/index.php?action=article&aid=829&group_id=20000149&lang=NL link to aircom plus, and ecoflex 15 and data.
Same goes for your connectors quality and how you put them on the cable...
With a 10 meter long cable the difference won't be too big though to change coax.
My used lengths are 18 meter to the Imax 2000 and 15 meter to the Diamond X510 2/70 antenna.
same 15 meters to my FD-4 OCF antena.

Up to some years ago we had an army dump here selling connectors with mil spec silvered pl259's with teflon isolation, absolute top stuff.
Still have about 20 new ones here in supply.

Fir the rest you are right, though i can also work the amateur bands like 160, when the sunspots are out and the atmosphere is quiet in the winter our 160 meter DX season starts, low noise and running an vertical against a good radial field i worked all USA, Canada, Alaska, South America, all Europe up to the Chinese border in Russia, north and south Africa, middle east, just running 800 watts into the vertical.
That is the benefit off all our different HF bands, they each have their own propagation and range and specialities.

For the higher bands each year even in no sunspot time there is E.S like we saw the last months.
Then your very good antenna system will give you just that edge you need, most of the time one call with 100 watts gives me the qso, no amp needed.
Even Japan over the North Pole is then relative easy on 10 meter.
All on a plot of 100 x 25 feet....
Even the Imax will do fine on 10/12/15/18.
Yes, i ran a full KW in it on those bands, most of the time not needed, just because i could...

One reason i bought the Yaesu FT991A for it's excellent noise reduction tools it has on board, better as the now retired FT 2000-D.
And better as the Icom 7300 too....
So it is the combination of the best you can set up as antenna system, and a good transceiver, not even the most expensive one, but one that fits your needs, in my case noise supression and a hot receiver on the edge of the city where i luckily don't have much noise.

Less of a problem if you live on the land with the next door neighbour is 5 miles away....
the 991 A was 1295 Euro, a FT 9000 would be 10 grand or so.
In my case the ft991a fit the bill in my needs, all amateur bands, no Mars mod done, and 6/2/70 all mode as well, and C4FM and WiresX.
And an excellent set of tools in the radio to fight noise.

Looks like we are entering cycle 25 soon, so better times await.
Good DX




The saying from me is simple, half a dB here saved 1/2 a dB saved there before you know you got an S point extra...

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

For HF i mostly use Aircom+ and for VHF and UHF i use ecoflex 15, that will set you back 7 Euro's a meter....
The Aircom plus is about 3 bucks a meter, normally that is used for VHF/UHF.
https://www.transonic-electronics.nl/index.php?action=article&aid=829&group_id=20000149&lang=NL link to aircom plus, and ecoflex 15 and data.
Same goes for your connectors quality and how you put them on the cable...
With a 10 meter long cable the difference won't be too big though to change coax.
My used lengths are 18 meter to the Imax 2000 and 15 meter to the Diamond X510 2/70 antenna.
same 15 meters to my FD-4 OCF antena.

Up to some years ago we had an army dump here selling connectors with mil spec silvered pl259's with teflon isolation, absolute top stuff.
Still have about 20 new ones here in supply.

Fir the rest you are right, though i can also work the amateur bands like 160, when the sunspots are out and the atmosphere is quiet in the winter our 160 meter DX season starts, low noise and running an vertical against a good radial field i worked all USA, Canada, Alaska, South America, all Europe up to the Chinese border in Russia, north and south Africa, middle east, just running 800 watts into the vertical.
That is the benefit off all our different HF bands, they each have their own propagation and range and specialities.

For the higher bands each year even in no sunspot time there is E.S like we saw the last months.
Then your very good antenna system will give you just that edge you need, most of the time one call with 100 watts gives me the qso, no amp needed.
Even Japan over the North Pole is then relative easy on 10 meter.
All on a plot of 100 x 25 feet....
Even the Imax will do fine on 10/12/15/18.
Yes, i ran a full KW in it on those bands, most of the time not needed, just because i could...

One reason i bought the Yaesu FT991A for it's excellent noise reduction tools it has on board, better as the now retired FT 2000-D.
And better as the Icom 7300 too....
So it is the combination of the best you can set up as antenna system, and a good transceiver, not even the most expensive one, but one that fits your needs, in my case noise supression and a hot receiver on the edge of the city where i luckily don't have much noise.

Less of a problem if you live on the land with the next door neighbour is 5 miles away....
the 991 A was 1295 Euro, a FT 9000 would be 10 grand or so.
In my case the ft991a fit the bill in my needs, all amateur bands, no Mars mod done, and 6/2/70 all mode as well, and C4FM and WiresX.
And an excellent set of tools in the radio to fight noise.

Looks like we are entering cycle 25 soon, so better times await.
Good DX




The saying from me is simple, half a dB here saved 1/2 a dB saved there before you know you got an S point extra...

That is some interesting cable in the link you shared. I use a 400 low loss cable from jefa tech. They also have it in a 600 too.

https://www.jefatech.com/collections/raw-cable-by-the-foot/products/ll400

 

[Justme]

To compare them you need to do that over the same length, one table is for 100 feet, the other for 100 meter, or 330 feet, and same frequency.
Looking at the loss of the Aircom plus at 100 feet at 145 MHz it is1.37 dB, compared to RG213 is 2.59 dB loss.
The 400 has 1.5 dB loss, stil higher as our Aircom plus.
On 145/430 I use Ecoflex 15 plus, per 100 feet has 1.02 dB loss on 145 MHz.
add to that the loss in the connectors, which as I am using 15 euro each N connectors is negible, with PL 259 of high quality is about 0.1 dB.
Cheapo Chinese PL259? won't get into this house, not sure if they give an impedance bump, nor how the quality of the dielectric is.

The higher the frequency the more the difference is,
At 70 cm's Ecoflex 15 per 100 feet is 1.83 dB loss
aircom plus is 2.50 dB loss
LL400 is 2.71 dB loss.

That is why i said for the short length changing coax on 11 meter has no real affect with 30 feet of cable, the LL 400 is a good choice for lengths up to 100 feet.
Your station is all about your antenna, feeder system and connectors, and radio and not to forget your ground and surroundings, dry sandy soil or seaclay or with your feet in salty seawater.

Not in the last in the equation is what happens above us or conditions.
There i can not change anything, what i CAN do is to optimize my station from antenna to feedline, connectors and radio, and ground network kiling off noise sources etc.
And no, you don't need the most fancy radio to work DX, my FT 847 with Collins filters of 22 years old will do that too, like the FT 100 also 22 years old mobile radio.
The FT 991A just has some more and better noise, QRM and QRN fighting tools on board.
Second, i just changed the speaker from the SP 820 speaker cabinet from the el cheapo japanese speaker in it to a 5" high quality low/mid range speaker that cost 30 bucks, 6 Ohms, 10 watt, large magnet much higher efficiency and more lows, and much better quality audio in the mid as well.
You pay a lot for a speaker that goes with a expensive radio with a cheap speaker inside and no sound proofing inside, just a metal box with a spaker with some filters...
Add sound proofing, like acoustic foam, better speaker and you will be surprised.
All part of my station i CAN improve.