During the last SS cycle Gary VK4ABW and I were about 18k apart. He had a 9 el yagi at about 100ft (Gary correct me if I am wrong) and I had a 7 el at 60ft. Most of the dx ended up in both of our QTHs.
What was very noticable was that Gary started working the Europeans about 30 to 45 mins, and sometimes as much as 1 hr before I did. Once the the band really opened up I could work most of what he could albeit a few S points down.
On the USA path Gary could work stns that I could not hear at all and that cannot be explained on antenna gain alone.
The only conclusion one can come to is that "more height the better."
Having said all that, I certainly worked a good deal of long-haul Dx with several hundred Eu contacts, and others into Central Asia, Central America, West Coast USA and long-path to South America, and West Africa heard but not worked. So an antenna at a modest height will work ok.
A lot of its comes down to a well set up station on both receive and transmit, the skills of the operator, the use of such aids as Spectran or Digipan, and a good system for monitoring beacons.
My plans for the coming SS cycle include an improved yagi (maybe 9el) at the same height, and very importantly, getting my CW back up to acceptable - that's a major mistake I made last time. CW is absolutely essential for the 6m dxer. It is going to be a major hurdle though as I have a progressive high-frequency hearing loss that makes copying CW very difficult. I hope that some of the newer computer programs may be able to provide some sort of backup for the computer that is between my ears.
I am also going to install a good system for monitoring beacons 24/7 with sound activated recording, and an alert alarm on 50.110 similar to that used in maritime radio rooms to wake me me if an opening occurs in the middle of the night (have to find a way to make it XYL friendly or I might be sleeping in the shack (or dog house!
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
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73
Wayne