[WVDXA] (no subject)

[Charlie Young]

Hi all, thanks for the welcome.  It is great to be back in WV.  I loved Louisiana, for many reasons, but there is no place like home. 
 
Pete: The last time we saw each other was likely at Logan HS, and I weighed 170#.  Today I weigh 225/230 and have no hair on top.  
 
I like chasing countries and pileups, and occasionally participate in contests, although I am not a serious contestor or award collector by any means.  This gets truer as I get older.  I love building and working on antennas.  
 
The last contest I entered a serious log for was the ARRL 10M in 1999, as CW only, high power. By then, my antenna farm was in disrepair, and I used a single 5 ele 10M Hygain yagi at 55'.  Normally I had 2 antennas for 20/15/10, but my big quad at 60' succumbed to one of the numerous tropical storms and the boom collapsed. I always wanted a big quad, and finally had one. It was on a 40' boom, had 4 ele on 20, 5 on 15 and 6 on 10.  Somewhere I have a before and after pix. The after pix is impressive. 
 
This is the second quad I lost in LA.  The first was a 3 el 20/4 el 10/15 on about a 21' boom. The boom survived but the spiders broke. 
 
Over the years, I compared these quads to yagis, first a 2 el triband quad to a TH7DX, then the larger quads to 5 ele Hygain yagis on each band. These were all within 5' of being at the same height over flat (really flat) ground.  The only time I could ever see what was an order of magnitude difference between these quads and yagis, in A versus B switching, was to the south polar region or to VP8 Falklands, etc.  For some reason, on this path, the big 4 el quad on 20M was always an S unit louder than a 5 el yagi at about the same height. 
 
Perhaps 80 and 10M, when we have sunspots are my favorite bands.  About 90% of my work is on CW.   
 
73, and see you in the pileups.  For now, I better renew my license before it expires in May. 
 
Charlie N8RR 
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