The Secret to Communications Success
By: José M. Candelaria NP4ET
Radio amateurs often wonder what the secret to successful communications is. There really is no secret but there is a winning formula in order of priorities to follow. This has been said for years, it is nothing new, but for some reason we reverse the order. Here is the order of priorities to keep in mind.
1. Antenna. The antenna is the main element of our radio station. It is responsible for radiating all the power emitted by our radio. This radiated power can be close to 100% if we have a resonant antenna, with correct impedance without the need of adapters. It must also have a good gain.
2. Feeder line. The feed line is the second item to consider in order of priority. It decides if the amount of power reaching your antenna is the same as that provided by the radio or if, on the contrary, most of the power remains stationary and is lost as heat. Not only must it be 50ohm, it must have a high speed factor and low attenuation.
3. Amplifier. Although this may be an optional item, the reality is that it is an important factor to take into account if you want to achieve communications in low propagation conditions or if you want to exceed that pile up and achieve that rare or very busy entity. It is true that one of the goals of amateur radio is to make communications with as little power as possible, but in practice there are times when 100 watts is not enough. This is where we wish we had that amplifier.
4. Radio or transceiver. For many this is the main element of our "shack", because it is the one we show to our friends when they visit us or because it is the most used in our radio station. But once you have the above elements of good quality, even the most modest of radios will perform the most difficult dx. It does us little good to have a radio worth thousands of dollars if the antenna we use is a multi-band wire that suppresses all the transmission quality of the radio. It is true that an experienced diexist will look for the best radios, with low noise ratio, multiple VFOs and multiple antenna outputs, but this same experienced diexist usually has a good antenna and knows the order of priorities. Buy a good radio, but have a good antenna first.
By: José M. Candelaria NP4ET