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[AA3R]

A bud and me live about 15 miles apart and both rag-chew a least a couple nights a week on, get this, 10 meters...we both run around 50 watts or less and are both 59....both are using dipoles....what’s weird (at least to us) is when we try to rag-chew on 20 or 40 watts we can barely copy each other...even at 100 watts...what is wrong here?

[K9RJ]

How about a little more information? What is your setup from rig to antenna? Are you changing power by adjusting the drive control or mic gain? What is the setup your 'bud' is using?

[G4AON]

Several of us have tried various bands for a local daytime net. The most successful band is 160m using vertical antennas. We use 100W to loaded verticals built on 30 foot fibreglass fishing poles, or “inverted L” wire antennas. Ground wave signals on 160m work to at least 30 miles in daylight hours. Signals are well above the noise floor.

73 Dave

[AA3R]

How about a little more information? What is your setup from rig to antenna? Are you changing power by adjusting the drive control or mic gain? What is the setup your 'bud' is using?

I think I stated the info....50 watts, myantenna EFHW (both) I run an Icom 7300 and he runs a Yaesu FT2000.....no adjustments, everything the same

[AA3R]

Several of us have tried various bands for a local daytime net. The most successful band is 160m using vertical antennas. We use 100W to loaded verticals built on 30 foot fibreglass fishing poles, or “inverted L” wire antennas. Ground wave signals on 160m work to at least 30 miles in daylight hours. Signals are well above the noise floor.

73 Dave

We do this around 7 pm

[KR6NU]

I'm assuming you meant to type 20 or 40 METERS - not watts.  Nothing's wrong - just differing groundwave propagation.  Probably your respective antennas play a part - especially their height.

[K0UA]

A bud and me live about 15 miles apart and both rag-chew a least a couple nights a week on, get this, 10 meters...we both run around 50 watts or less and are both 59....both are using dipoles....what’s weird (at least to us) is when we try to rag-chew on 20 or 40 watts we can barely copy each other...even at 100 watts...what is wrong here?

Provided you meant to say "meters" and not "watts", nothing is wrong.  This is normal operation. For one thing 10 meters is far and away less noisy than 40 or 20 meters. So your noise floor is way lower.  If you meant to say watts instead of meters... well you are on your own there.

[W1VT]

This may be a consequence of using "no trap" antennas.
The advantage of a antenna with traps is that you can have the same pattern on multiple bands.

If you use the entire wire on multiple bands  you can expect the pattern to change bands.  As you go higher you tend to get more gain, also more holes in your pattern.

Zak W1VT

[K0UA]

Well I (for one) am not certain what he said.  If he is saying he has good communications at 50 watts but not 40 watts or 100 watts.. Well then he will have to figure out that observation on his own.

[W9IQ]

I think I stated the info....50 watts, myantenna EFHW (both) I run an Icom 7300 and he runs a Yaesu FT2000.....no adjustments, everything the same

When you use a multiband antenna, the gain for each band is different. In general, as you go down in frequency, so does the gain. This is because the wire is becoming electrically shorter and the electrical height above ground is decreasing.

Another factor, that Zack mentioned, is that the radiation pattern of the antennas change on each band.

Finally, while ground waves propagate further as the frequency decreases, a horizontally polarized ground wave signal, such as from an EFHW, is more attenuated than that of a vertically polarized signal.

These combined factors could easily explain your observations.

- Glenn W9IQ

[AA3R]

20 and 40 meters not watts....thanks for all the replies

[AA3R]

Well I (for one) am not certain what he said.  If he is saying he has good communications at 50 watts but not 40 watts or 100 watts.. Well then he will have to figure out that observation on his own.

20 and 40 meters not watts, typo

[AA3R]

This may be a consequence of using "no trap" antennas.
The advantage of a antenna with traps is that you can have the same pattern on multiple bands.

If you use the entire wire on multiple bands  you can expect the pattern to change bands.  As you go higher you tend to get more gain, also more holes in your pattern.

Zak W1VT

thanks, makes perfect sense

[KH6AQ]

Original post, corrected
A bud and me live about 15 miles apart and both rag-chew a least a couple nights a week on, get this, 10 meters...we both run around 50 watts or less and are both 59....both are using dipoles....what’s weird (at least to us) is when we try to rag-chew on 20 or 40 meters we can barely copy each other...even at 100 watts...what is wrong here?

Questions
What antennas are used on 20 and 40 meters?
If dipoles, how high are the antennas?

[AA3R]

Original post, corrected
A bud and me live about 15 miles apart and both rag-chew a least a couple nights a week on, get this, 10 meters...we both run around 50 watts or less and are both 59....both are using dipoles....what’s weird (at least to us) is when we try to rag-chew on 20 or 40 meters we can barely copy each other...even at 100 watts...what is wrong here?

Questions
What antennas are used on 20 and 40 meters?
If dipoles, how high are the antennas?

Thanks for correcting! We both use Myantennas EFHW 10-40.....I'm up about 25' and my friend's is about 35'