Kiribati/Gilbert Island group

[Robb]

Talked to a fellow named "Zam" @ 6:20 PM/PST.
Division 244 WR-004 is his call sign.
S-2 signal strength; a 2/4 signal at my end.
I was hitting him stronger @ 3/5 with my IMAX and favorable conditions.
27.405mhz/LSB . . .



This happened after several contacts within the contiguous US. Talked to the S tip of FL first - and then everything in between - several times over. Conditions were xlnt today on 11m. . .

 

[DXman]

Robb,
A lot of the guys from 224/265/266 (Kiribati) use 27.355 usb, so drop to there and listen every now and then, might catch them when conditions are in.

There are quite of few guys from that area now.

 

[DXman]

Talked to a fellow named "Zam" @ 6:20 PM/PST.
Division 244 WR-004 is his call sign.
27.405mhz/LSB

244 Division-Pagalu Is - WOW Robb - that's pretty good now that I seen it ... coast of Africa at 6:20 PM from the west coast.
I guess that Imax is working pretty darn good........lol

 

[Beetle]

Was that 224 or 244?

Annobon/Pagalu is difficult from the west coast at any time, but the Gilbert Islands/Kiribati is a piece of pie (or is it cake?) when the band is open.

 

[Robb]

244 Division-Pagalu Is - WOW Robb - that's pretty good now that I seen it ... coast of Africa at 6:20 PM from the west coast.
I guess that Imax is working pretty darn good........lol

It was a typo!
224/Kiribati might be a 'piece of cake' for y'all on 11m living up in Washington; but it was the first time for me in CA.

I've talked to S Brazil, S Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand - which are all much farther in distance than Kiribati.

I'd never heard Kiribati when I used to run an aluminum 5/8 aluminum ground plane back in the day.

Better antenna? Can't say for sure. I am not running a beam like you guys are, just the IMAX and making contacts I never made after getting back into radio. I can tell ya that I've made better distance consistently with it though.

A beam will be my next project before Spring. Either an Avanti PDL-2, Maco 4 element, or a HyGain TH6-DXX. I already have the rotor, control box, coax, and mast for the first two. Might be able to score the HyGain for nothing; have to contact the owner still. My place already looks like an antenna farm.

BTW - if you had a choice between the PDL-2 and a 4 element Maco M104; which would you choose?

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

It was a typo!
224/Kiribati might be a 'piece of cake' for y'all on 11m living up in Washington; but it was the first time for me in CA.

Anywhere in the Pacific is a piece of cake from anywhere along the west coast. I am just the opposite. I can work Europe and Africa on a wet shoe string for an antenna but the Pacific is a problem for me.

I've talked to S Brazil, S Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand - which are all much farther in distance than Kiribati.

Distance has little to do with it really. Sometimes longpath is favoured over the shortpath. The big thing is if there is propagation and if someone is on the air from there.

I'd never heard Kiribati when I used to run an aluminum 5/8 aluminum ground plane back in the day.

Better antenna? Can't say for sure. I am not running a beam like you guys are, just the IMAX and making contacts I never made after getting back into radio. I can tell ya that I've made better distance consistently with it though.

Given that the two antennas have a fraction of a dB difference in gain I can say for sure it's not the antenna making the difference. You can hardley compare different antennas minutes apart much less weeks, months, years etc. especially when the solar cycle is in transition from one cycle to the next.

A beam will be my next project before Spring. Either an Avanti PDL-2, Maco 4 element, or a HyGain TH6-DXX. I already have the rotor, control box, coax, and mast for the first two. Might be able to score the HyGain for nothing; have to contact the owner still. My place already looks like an antenna farm.

Ummmm....... you have a ham ticket right? Hands down I would get the TH6-DXX. Well I would IF they were still made. According to the HyGain site they no longer list the TH6-DXX. I would opt for the TH5-MK2 or as I actually did do earlier this year, the Explorer-14. It has 0.2 dB less gain than the TH5, a shorter boom length, is a lot lighter, and you can add either 30 or 40m to it. I opted to add 40m. Oh yeah, it's almost $200 cheaper too.

BTW - if you had a choice between the PDL-2 and a 4 element Maco M104; which would you choose?

See my choice above. However IF I had to choose between the two I would go with the PDL-II. The gain is going to be minutely different and the PDL -II gives you dual polarity and that can make the difference between a 59 report and a 23 report. I ran dual polarity antennas for years and years and they are well worth having.