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Message-ID: <3.0.1.16.20000118113515.2d2fe45e@mail.cc.kuleuven.ac.be>
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 11:35:15
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
From: "Rik Strobbe" <rik.strobbe@fys.kuleuven.ac.be>
Subject: LF: Men and boys
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There is so much more needed to built a BIG vertical than just the will to
do it. A stable big vertical tower costs a lot of money (at least they're
not for free in Belgium), the authorities need a to give you permission to
built it and also your family and neighbourgs must agree (unless you play
'I am alone on the world' and don't care about others).
So a lot of us (I even dare to say most of us) will have to live as 'boys'
on LF and probably never will become 'men'. But this does not mean that we
have no chances to work nice 'DX'. First of all there is the 1 Watt ERP
level that limits the possibilities of the 'men' (unless they don't care
about the law) and further there is more needed than a BIG antenna to be
succesfull on LF. Good operating skills and knowledge of the propagation
are important too.
At my QTH I will never get a permission (from the authorities) to built a
tower higher than about 60 ft. Furthermore I live in a forrested area what
causes rather high losses, I need about 450W of HF to pump 1.9A into my
antenna. These are restrictions I have to live with, and with this limits I
will try to get the best signal in the air and keep experimenting to
improve the antenna. But I (and my family) do like our house and the
surrounding very much, so I do not intend to sell the house and move to
another place just to become a 'men'.
But even with my 'boy-antenna' I managed to work over 70 stations in 17
countries and up to 1700km away. Others (eg. G3XDV, G4GVC) managed to get
similar results with rather limited antennas.

73, Rik  ON7YD