03/20/2009 | GM3PPG I operated 80m single band SSB again from the island of
North Uist, Outer Hebrides. Set up a 6 el. vertical
phased array next to the Atlantic again, but operated from
an old croft house this year rather than /P. No faults
with either rig or antenna - wind speeds a lot lower
than last year. Prop. condx. excellent on the first night
with many good strength West Coast signals and low noise
levels. The band stayed open for me till 0830z but I could
hear CU2X continuing for another 2 hours. The West coast
signals I could hear at this time were about S1-2 at my quiet
Northerly location, but unworkable. The highlight of the
first night was working VE8EV in NWT. Condx. for me were a lot
worse the second night with more absorbtion, and a noisier
band, but still a few West Coast signals. Band stayed open on this morning till 0730z.
Very pleased to end up with 22 Californian qso's, but missed out on MT, UT, ID, NV, VO2, VE5, VY0, and VY1. Thanks to K3VOA for the only DC qso. and AC7NO for WY. Heard and worked more VE4 than ever before.

The 6 el vertical array has a better high angle F/B than a conventional 4 square, but a significantly narrower main azimuth lobe, albeit 2dB more gain on boresight. This may have contributed to it being unable sometimes to keep the freq. clear of Central/South American stations and Caribbean stations from encroaching. Maybe next year I need a separate rx antenna.

Looks like paths to the West coast did not extend into North-Eastern Europe from comments from Jurek - SP3GEM.

Difficult to imagine how to compete with the tremendous station
and score from Martii at CU2X - which is also in Europe - but
great fun nonetheless. Thanks to all the callers - old well known calls as well as new ones to me - and hope to see you all again next year. I used SD logging and thank Paul EI5DI, for providing this prog. free. 73, Rick (GM3PPG).

Rig : FT990 with Acom amp

Ant. : 6 el. driven phased vertical array : 6 elements in a half wavelength square with binomial current distribution, LC phasing network, 3/4 wave current forcing lines, 50m from Atlantic. 32 quarter wave radials on ground, untuned for each vert. Each vert. is 20m tall. -- G4BYB