Skip shooting on Dipole?

[ironman1956]

I have my dipole up on a 20 ft. high pole with the wires coming down at 45 degree angles off of center. I am running a barefoot Uniden 980 SSB and have had a tough time skipping with this rig. I just wonder if it is the radiating pattern of the dipole causing the problem. I have talked local with it and it is working properly as well as to one of my mobile units while the wife was on it talking to me. I just have not had much luck on am or side band. My Sirio 27 GTE 5/8 ths ground plane came in and I am hoping this will help. My house is 24 feet tall as well as others in the neighborhood. Any comments would be appreciated.

[795]

You have it as a inverted vee, I use one for the ham band it works good, it is somewhat directional though, and with your radio it I believe runs 12 to 15 watts peak/tune, you are against big guns or 100 watt operators, which will bleep you out. If your talking local with it, it is working. Your new antenna might help a bit, but remember power , and the channel is heavy during skip season.
DOCTOR/795

[ironman1956]

You have it as a inverted vee, I use one for the ham band it works good, it is somewhat directional though, and with your radio it I believe runs 12 to 15 watts peak/tune, you are against big guns or 100 watt operators, which will bleep you out. If your talking local with it, it is working. Your new antenna might help a bit, but remember power , and the channel is heavy during skip season.
DOCTOR/795

Okay, so it is probably directional and not going to be very effective until I get the ground wave up over the house. Thankyou for the reply. I have guys bleeding into channel 7 from channel 6 and they are broadcasting in Chicago and I am in Washington State. No wonder power is illegal on 11 meter.

[-357Mag]

Once you put up the GP reorient the Dipole to horizontal a dipole will radiate off the sides not the ends so if the ends are N/S your signal will be E/W with a lower take off angle for DX work. Add a Coax switch and use the GP for Local and the Dipole for DX. As stated above QRP is difficult on 11 mtrs put a KL 203P in the line you should be able to hit England fairly easy on LSB. That Uniden 980 is a Pretty face but it has its limits as to what you can can get into the wire compared to some ugly rigs.

(edited by MDY, removed double post)

[MDYoungblood]

Skip is being in the right place at the right time, adding wattage does help but is not always the case at getting out but believe me some big radios have a hard time breaking through a pileup. A few of the loud stations you hear have made it a science of reading propagation charts and the rest follow them. Just listen for stations like 4444, he is a good indication of east/west propagation. Texas stations have a good location because being in the middle of the country they can make for both direction contacts thru the daylight hours.
Trying to shoot skip with the big dawgs on channel 6 and your just a puppy, your not going to get through, try other channels, on AM channel 31 and 35 have low power stations all the time, on SSB when 38LSB is congested go to 36,37, 39, or 40.

3's

Greg

[Slim Pickins]

Skip is being in the right place at the right time, adding wattage does help but is not always the case at getting out but believe me some big radios have a hard time breaking through a pileup. A few of the loud stations you hear have made it a science of reading propagation charts and the rest follow them. Just listen for stations like 4444, he is a good indication of east/west propagation. Texas stations have a good location because being in the middle of the country they can make for both direction contacts thru the daylight hours.
Trying to shoot skip with the big dawgs on channel 6 and your just a puppy, your not going to get through, try other channels, on AM channel 31 and 35 have low power stations all the time, on SSB when 38LSB is congested go to 36,37, 39, or 40.

3's

Greg

All good advice. I have talked to Europe, North America, South America, and Australia on 10w ssb on a 1/4 wl sloper. Pick a clear channel and start calling.

[ironman1956]

Skip is being in the right place at the right time, adding wattage does help but is not always the case at getting out but believe me some big radios have a hard time breaking through a pileup. A few of the loud stations you hear have made it a science of reading propagation charts and the rest follow them. Just listen for stations like 4444, he is a good indication of east/west propagation. Texas stations have a good location because being in the middle of the country they can make for both direction contacts thru the daylight hours.
Trying to shoot skip with the big dawgs on channel 6 and your just a puppy, your not going to get through, try other channels, on AM channel 31 and 35 have low power stations all the time, on SSB when 38LSB is congested go to 36,37, 39, or 40.

3's

Greg

Thanks Greg for the input. I will take you advice. Once I get my Sirio 27GPE 5/8 wave over this two story house and operational it would probably be wise to have the Uniden Bearcast alighned and a good older Turner plus two or something similar in a desk microphone installed. I know years ago I had one on my President Washington and had the radio tuned and it did realy bang out there on the airwaves. Curt

[Buzzweiser]

An inverted V dipole is the best of both worlds antenna. Good for local and mediocre for dx. Make it a true horizontal dipole for DX and it will work much better. I have mine attached below my copy stick at 19ft off the ground and in a northwest to southeast alignment with the center strand to the northwest and about 8 degrees higher than the other side. I have worked the EU area many many times with this set-up as well as Australia on a few occasions with 30watt PEP. I put mine up in that direction just for Europe and the South pacific. At times I can still work Florida and the other southern states pretty well even though the lobe pattern for the antenna isn't the best in that directional set-up. I will admit I am usually running a bit more than 30 watts pep when I do that though but it has worked in the off lobe directions with the 30 pep. Height isn't that important with a horizontal dipole. 1/2 wave length off the ground is adequate. Sometimes going higher with a horizontal dipole is counter productive. The only reason I ever went over 20 feet was to clear the roof line at my old apartment.

[De_Wildfire]

I talk all over the world using a dipole in a inverted V config. Also, the inverted L with ground radials works well too.

[LadyMermaid]

You can talk on the Bowl aka Channel 6 with 300 watts to 1,000 watts --- condition and timing plays a part. When the big bosses are fighting I stay away...when things are clear, I spread my fins and have a good time.

[Lost Ram]

I take a stab at the bowl frequently with just a 4W swinging 12W but rarely make a contact but its pretty awesome when I do with 4W. Normally its to Hawaii when I do that though.

[LadyMermaid]

Well, that would never happen in California unless I am on Sideband.

awesome

talking with lowest wattage is something we all should aim for
if we did bring it down, the high wattage would not be needed

greed will kill us all

[Lost Ram]

Well, that would never happen in California unless I am on Sideband.

awesome

talking with lowest wattage is something we all should aim for
if we did bring it down, the high wattage would not be needed

greed will kill us all

Very true, but , greed makes us strong until some one with more greed throws the hammer on us. LOL!!!!!
On the Ham bands its amazing what I can do with the stock power of my radio, yes its 50-75 watts but, I talk or hear the most of world on it from a 204' wire horizontal antenna that is less then 20' off the ground. If all CB went back to 4W's it would be easier and cleaner on the cb for sure. On thing for is when I put my 4W cb into my Maco Shooting Star beam I step into the big dog arena.

[theglide]

From central Florida I have worked as far north as Delaware on a barefoot 980SSB and 1/2 wave DIY dipole on my balcony. The directional orientation of the elements is important. Mine face north and south. South is dead because my sliding doors and condo are that way. East is Europe, haven't heard skip from there yet, west is other condo units so basically all my DXing so far is N/NE/NW. Never had much luck until I hooked up a D104 mike to the radio, then I started making a few contacts, usually on 36, 37, 39 and 40 LSB. The big dogs play on 38LSB. Just got a KL203P, will see if it gets me further like Canada, Michigan. I'm hoping for European skip, I have a straight shot across the Atlantic to the NE as I live on the east coast of Florida a mile from the ocean. My dipole is horizontal.

[MDYoungblood]

I'll listen for you when skip is coming in from Florida, I'm usually on 38 or 39LSB. You should see some Europe skip in the mid to late fall months. The sunspot cycle is on the downward spiral so skip won't be like it was last year this time.

3's

Greg

[443 Arizona]

i once used a horz. dipole 20' off the ground and barefooted with AU at 2:30am on sideband... you really dont need power at all, just tuning. a good radio can make alot of difference.
at that time i was using a tram d60 with receive opened up and hitched clarifier. stock mic.
a power supply with lowest ripple helps.
my suggestion to you is get that tenna up at least to 30', go horz. and be able to turn it.

[theglide]

I'll listen for you when skip is coming in from Florida, I'm usually on 38 or 39LSB. You should see some Europe skip in the mid to late fall months. The sunspot cycle

Sounds good Greg. I got my 203P working now too so if I ever hear the NE (haven't in the last few weeks) I'll give you a shout. My call sign is 270 Florida, what is yours?