"Steve" wrote:

I've been reading about these and am intrigued.

These antennas are often mounted in a sloping configuration, but how
steep can the angle be? I'm sure the steepness of the angle is going to
effect the antenna's radiation pattern, but will how? Does it cause the
antenna to become highly directional as the angle increases?

Actually, the idea behind the slope is to make it more
omnidirectional. The ideal slope is something like 30 degrees, but
there's no hard-and-fast rule on this. Set it up as best you can.


How do these antennas perform in relatively noisy environments? I've
read that they're relatively slow to pick up local noise, but I'd like
to hear about some people's first hand experiences with them.

I absolutely love mine. Or loved -- it came down and was heavily
damaged in a windstorm, so I've been stuck using an end-fed wire
instead. It seems to be far less sensitive to near-field noise than
the longwire, and yet had nearly the same signal strength from most
directions. The longwire is 400 feet long and has an extensive
grounding and radial network, so it's not exactly a slouch in the
receive department... but the T2FD was a better overall performer. I
just have to rebuild it now.


Are these antennas inevitably eyesores to those philistines who don't
appreciate the beauty of a good antenna? Is there a way to make them
less conspicuous?

Mine was quite visible, and I thought of it as an eyesore, but my
neighbors didn't even notice it. It is heavy, visible, and provides a
lot of wind loading with all the spacers it needs. I live in a *very*
high wind area and mine would always come down. I ended up with a
counterweight system to allow it to get blown out of shape by quite a
bit and then return to normal when the wind died down... but that may
not be necessary where you live.

I don't know of a good way to make them less conspicuous unless you
want to play around with using very high strength material with a dark
color for the spacers -- something that doesn't have to be too thick.
Mine used PVC spacers and was ugly, but I live in the boonies and
could get away with it.


Thanks,

Steve

Hope this is helpful,

Eric

--
Eric F. Richards

"Nature abhors a vacuum tube." -- Myron Glass,
often attributed to J. R. Pierce, Bell Labs, c. 1940