6Y4A Team Jamaica on using their Verticals and StackMatches to power them to a BIG score.

6Y4A Team: K2KW, N6BT, N6TV, W4SO, JE3MAS, W9QA, AG9A, KE7X, JI3ERV

By ken Silverman@AIRTOUCH

"I never thought such simple vertical antennas could make such a big score", Mas, JE3MAS.

This comment by Mas was felt by most of the operators... (yee had little
faith! de K2KW)

I have not heard about other M/M scores, but congratulations to those teams
who gave us some stiff competition. I can only assume that others will post
higher M/M scores, my hat is off to their accomplishments.

** Preliminary Score ... the score may change. (more statistics below)

CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 1997

Call: 6Y4A Country: Jamaica
Mode: CW Category: Multi Multi
Zone: 08
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/QSO ZONES COUNTRIES

160      912  1941 2.13  22  67
80      1944  4809 2.47  28  95
40      3769  9785 2.60  33 126 (QSO total is NOT a typo!)
20      3754  9804 2.61  40 150
15      3070  7795 2.54  35 129
10      1529  3530 2.31  30  91
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 14978 37664 2.51 188 658 => 31,863,744

**The 6Y4A team would appreciate any comments on our operation, operating
styles, signal strength, ease or difficulty working us, etc..


Wow, what a fun time! Many people on team had not met each other before
gathering in Jamaica, but everyone bonded in the time before the contest,
and we all had a great time! Most of us arrived a week before the contest,
and we had enough time to take time off to see the local sites, and the
highlight was walking up Dunns River Falls (some of the group climbed
twice!)
The location of the site was on the north shore of Jamaica about halfway
between MoBay and Ocho Rios. The antennas were set up on 600' of
ocean-front. This was a field-day
type of operation, with all equipment and antennas were brought down by
the operators.

While I am going to keep this posting (relatively) short, as I could write
volume about this operation, there are a few
noticeable accomplishments that need to be recognized:
* The outstanding 40m QSO totals turned out by Dave, W9QA, and Mas, JE3MAS.
They had a total of 3739 QSOs (not including dupes), which I believe is a
new QSO record on that band. And all this was done with 15' high 40m
antennas! When doing the forecasts for our operation, it was my belief
that with the right combination of location, antennas, and operators, that
the 40m QSO total should just about equal the 20m score. Well, these guys
proved that theory correct by out-QSOing the 20m position by 15 contacts.
Great job guys! 4000 QSOs on 40m is not out of the question for next
year.
* The first ever JA-6Y QSO on 160m was made by N6BT before the contest,
with a few contacts made during the contest. Amongst the operators, over a
dozen JA stations were worked during the trip, with the best conditions
coming the morning after the contest, with signals peaking an honest 579
from the stronger stations.
* The great team work by all the 6Y4A operators


Primary operator list:
160m: N6BT
80m: K2KW
40m: W9QA, JE3MAS
20m: N6TV, JI3ERV
15m: AG9A, KE7X
10m: W4SO
Equipment list:
160: TS 870, MLA 2500 - 1000w
80: IC756, Alpha 76 PA - 1200w
40m: TS930, MLA 2500 - 900w
20m: FT1000MP, Finn Fet expedition amp - 800w
15m: TS930, MLA2500 - 1000w
10m: IC756, MLA2500 - 1000w
Laptop computers running CT in the -LOOP configuration
DX Telnet supplied DX packet spots by monitoring the OH2BUA Webcluster

Antenna list:
All antennas supplied by Force 12, and the antenna systems for this
operation were designed by N6BT and K2KW. Coax costs were supplemented by
Nemal Electronics.
All antennas, and 24' of mast, fit into 4 hard-case golf club carriers, and
weighed just under 280 pounds, including the cases. It was hard to
believe that all the antennas for a multi-multi operation could fit in
those
4 small cases, and at that weight! Great job Tom! And many, many, thanks
from the 6Y4A team.

Essentially this was an all-vertical antenna system.
160m: 55' tall linear loaded vertical, 4 elevated radials

80m: 2 element parasitically coupled 35' linear loaded verticals, 2
elevated radials per element, fixed North

40m (1): 2 element 15' tall ZR verticals parasitically coupled, fixed on
EU

40m (2): 2 element 15' tall ZR verticals parasitically coupled, fixed on
USA/JA

20m (1): 4 element "2x2 array" fixed on EU. Array consists of a phased
pair of 2 element quarter wave verticals that are parasitically coupled. 2
raised radials per element. A.K.A. "Flame thrower" Primarily since one
of the bamboo poles supporting the radials burst into flames due to high
voltage, but also since it was very strong into EU. WX0B StackMatch box
used to combine both 20m antennas

20m (2): 2 ele quarter wave verticals, parasitically coupled, fixed on
USA/JA, 2 elevated radials per element

15m (1): 2 ele quarter wave verticals, parasitically coupled, fixed at 10
degrees for USA/JA and EU, 2 elevated radials per element, WX0B StackMatch
box used to combine the 15m antennas.

15m (2): 2 element horizontal yagi at 30'

15m (3): 8 element inverted-V yagi fixed on EU, sloping from 40' to 20'
high (this was put up a few hours before the start of the contest since we
thought we needed extra gain to counter the solar flare. The antenna had
a 4 dB edge over the other antennas at the peak of the opening)

10m (1): 2 ele vertical dipole array parasitically coupled, fixed at 10
degrees for USA/JA and EU, WX0B StackMatch Box

10m (2): 2 element horizontal yagi at 33' mounted on bamboo poles lashed
together
Antenna tidbits:
Much of the details and research that went into the antenna design will be
published in the upcoming February issue of CQ Contest magazine. For
those of you following the thread on these antennas (there was some
discussion on cq-contest@contesting. Com a while back), we had a problem in
the 1997 6Y4A ARRL DX CW operation with the melting (breaking) of the guy
ropes due to high voltage. The melting occurred due to the salt water
build up on the nylon ropes, which then became conductive. This year we
went to great extents to reduce the potential of this occurring, but we
still lost one guy rope, where the rope had simultaneously melted on both
sides of a 4" long insulator separating the vertical from the guy rope.
The bamboo pole on the 20m radial burst into flames since we ran out of
insulators for the radials and just wrapped the end of the radial around
the bamboo. We
later went back and used tie-wraps as insulators when we ran out of ceramic
insulators. But we also lost (melted) a few tie-wraps, and the radials
fell down!
If anyone tells you that a vertical is a simple antenna that just requires
a few radials of random length just thrown around, does not know what they
are talking about! We had to tune the verticals by adjusting the radial
length,
and adjusting the height of the radial above ground. And you DO need
radials even if the antenna is just a few feet from the salt water.

73, Kenny K2KW
Team Leader, 6Y4A

Here is an update and some comments from the 1998 operation:

Tuesday, December 15, 1998 12:45 PM
To: wx0b@arraysolutions.com
Subject: Use of StackMatch




Here is portion of some comments that N6BV got from speaking with K6NA,
who was one of the TI1C members:

They had lots of antennas on 10/15/20, but feedline lengths were unknown,
and the system was not set up for stacks... because of this, they did
not try to stack or combine the antennas.

"Glenn feels that our use of the WX0B StackMatch boxes was one key to our
success. The lack of line noise was another major factor, in his opinion.
Glenn greatly admired the constant attention to detail by our own Kenny
Silverman."

While the StackMatch is one factor in our success, there were lots of
other factors.  And I get the feeling that even these guys
still underestimate the power of the vertical.

BTW, when we use the StackMatch for antenna combining, I dont care
about feed line length - I just hook 'em up.

In Jamaica we did a test to see how the power was being split between
each antenna in all the various combinations.  We had power meters in
line with each antenna.  While the power distribution was not equal, and
varied with each particular combination, there is no doubt that
even small power in another direction is a powerful tool.  The StackMatch
makes this technique really easy.

73, Kenny



Please send any comments on the 6Y4A operation to:
ken.silverman@airtouch.com