Last night I decided to give the transmitter a rest and operate rx-only on 630m WSPR. I know that vertically polarized antennas do not make for good receive antennas but was surprised at just how poorly it performed on receive. I received no more stations using a resonant 630m antenna that when I used a random wire 75 feet long a few weeks ago.
This is sort of confirmed by other stations on the band as well - stations that are both receiving and transmitting almost always are heard by more stations than they themselves hear. Stations that receive only usually copy many more stations than those that are transceiving.
This all led me to wonder what type of antenna rx-only stations are using that allow them to copy so many stations. I would think 'a loop' but loops are directional and most of these stations are copying signals from all around them.
Here's my request to stations that are active on 630m: please update your QRZ.com bio with what you are using. It's great that you have a supportive wife, 3 grandkids and a furry cat that can copy Morse but a description of your station might be useful to those wondering who is doing what on the band with what.
