[HCDX] Friday night BOG log !

[J999w@xxxxxxx]

I didn't have much time, but I did manage to sneek out for a short time 
tonight backpacking the Palstar R-30 to a local park and laying out a beverage on 
ground (BOG) antenna. This time I brought my MFJ-1026 but had left the coax 
jumper at home ( Doh ! ), and then while stringing out the wire, my speaker wire 
pigtail broke 100 ft from the end. Not knowing initially where it had broken,  
I stopped pulling. so that left me with 100 ft of wire still on the spool, 
thus I only used 500 ft tonight. This is layed in a field of tall grass.

I've got the MFJ-1026 and Palstar R-30 individually wrapped in bubble wrap, 
then taped together. That fits nicely in the bottom of my normal sized 
backpack. The plan (when I get the bugs worked out) is to only have to unzip the top 
of the pack, hook up the wire, turn on the radio, and be DXing. Minimal setup, 
minimal take down. I've got both the MFJ and Palstar running off the same 
external 12v rechargable battery, and when I get a simple 12v to 9v converter 
built, I'll be running my tape recorder off that too. 

My antenna is a 500 ft spool of stranded 14g wire with 200 ft of speaker wire 
pigtailed on the end of that (stretches too easily though, and breaks! ). I 
put the spool on a "T" made from water pipe that makes up my cable winder. I 
leave a 10 inch piece sticking out the ground so all I have to do is mount the 
"T" on that, slide the spool on, place a cap to hold on the spool, and walk it 
out. Winding it up is a snap using a wooden handle with a sawed off screw on 
the end that I stick in one of the holes on the spool. I can easily wind up the 
antenna at 100 ft per minute. The wire gets hidden in the woods (pretty heavy 
to carry each time), the pipe is dissasembled and goes in the pack. Only a 
short pipe sticking out of the ground stays at the DX site.

Anyway, either the band was flat today, or I just got out there too early 
(7pm). No Mexican or Cubans heard at all, although as I was driving home, XEX was 
audible on 730khz using the car radio. First impressions with this antenna 
can be deceiving. At home, with omni directional antennas, the band is alive 
with interferring stations, channels roaring with a jumble of stations comming in 
from everywhere. I don't hear that with the BOG. It's deceiving because as 
you tune across the band, stations that normally are very loud, are quite weak, 
then suddenly BOOM, you tune across a loud station, but it's not a powerhouse 
KDKA, or WSM, it's WLOC Monfordville, KY, or WDHP Frederiksted, US Virgin 
Islands -this antenna is very directional !  Especially at the top end of the 
band. 

So here's tonight's log:

Palstar R-30, 500ft BOG aimed south east.

1150khz WLOC Monfordville, KY 10.17.03 1920cdt VG with quick ident. JW-WI
1160khz WAMB Donelson, TN 10.17.03 1915cdt VG with Lions HSFB. JW-WI
1180khz WVLZ Knowxville, TN 10/17.03 1910cdt VG with Bulldogs HSFB. JW-WI
1650khz KDNZ Cedar Falls, IA  10.17.03 1900cdt VG with local news and wx. 
JW-WI
1670khz WRNC Warner Robbins, GA 10.17.03 1905 cdt E all alone with gospel 
prog. JW-WI

I possibly heard PJB Bonaire on 800khz tonight with a long monolog in 
spanish, sounded like religious content. 

I'll be trying again the next few nights, so we'll see what conditions bring !

73,

John Wilke WB9UAI
Milwaukee, WI





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