dead spots... and getting to them

[rjvalenta]

i am new to HF and 100% using FT8 so far... i would have WAS completed 40-10m if it weren't for 3 states on 12m...

i'm in stlouis, these states are KY, AR, and MS... not far, 2 are touching my state, and PSKReporter shows my signals going right over them, sometimes i can hear KY or MS, but they don't hear me - or they'll hear me but i can't hear them.

antennas/radios i have tried:

--IC7100 at 50w (MFJ939 tuner)
- my 4010EFHW that runs east to west, the balun at about 15ft over my roof on the east end, sloping up to 20ft in to a tree on the west end... the broad side facing north to south, slightly southeast/northwest (basically broadside points at Mississippi).
- a 20m/6m fan dipole poorly up on my roof on a PVC pole, 15ft up, pointing north to south, broad sides facing east and west, which tunes through my MFJ939 to 12m.
- a very basic resonant 12m dipole, 15ft up, on a 21ft fence top rail... which i have tried to rotate in many directions - and heights, hoping for maybe NVIS to work...

--X6100 at 10w (internal tuner)
- connected to an MFJOctopus with 60/40/20/10 sticks, on top of a 21ft fence top rail as a mast, which i have also tried to rotate in many directions.

>>> roughly a mile from me - in the direction i need to transmit - is an office building about 10 stories high - could that be the cause?? <<<
(i dont think it could be, the building is so small compared to the area i'm trying to reach, but... i'm desperate for ideas on the cause)

if not, anyone have any suggestions on how to get around this?

 

[freqhopping]

Try a vertical like a hamstick. A bunch of my shorter 12m FT8 contacts have been while doing POTA with a hamstick.

 

[mmckenna]

i'm in stlouis, these states are KY, AR, and MS... not far, 2 are touching my state, and PSKReporter shows my signals going right over them, sometimes i can hear KY or MS, but they don't hear me - or they'll hear me but i can't hear them.

NVIS antennas may be another option.
Bounce the signal up and off the ionosphere and down to the local states.
I'm not an HF guy, so take that with a grain of salt. Might be something to research, though. I'm sure others can give you some better explanations, though.

 

[freqhopping]

NVIS really isn't a thing on 12m at our latitudes. It's generally only going to work on 40m and below.

 

[K5MPH]

Can you put that Fan dipole up more higher than 15 feet to get more angle.......

 

[mmckenna]

NVIS really isn't a thing on 12m at our latitudes. It's generally only going to work on 40m and below.

Thanks, missed the part about 12m.

 

[K6GBW]

Hang the dipole as a sloped antenna. Make it almost vertical and orient it toward the direction you want to radiate. That's probably the best you can do.

 

[krokus]

What about a beam antenna, with a rotator, to see of you can get just a bit more ground wave to those areas?

 

[freqhopping]

Conditions right now are allowing me to make some relatively short 12m contacts with a hamstick on my truck.