dxAce wrote:
dxAce, Don't you have your antenna feeds connect to your wires a fair
distance from your house anyway? (I say this based on a cursory look at
the photos on your website...)
Yes, I'd say they're about 50-75 feet out back.
That's a good safe distance, I'd say.
Thus, in your circumstances, it may not be all that critical...in which
case I might not have stumbled across it either. If I could connect
farther from my house, I would - but in my case, it would put the
lead-in adjacent to one of two sets of electrical lines that partially
rim my yard. Living in the city can bite sometimes (to put it mildly).
Sorry, I still don't get it. The antenna is where the antenna is!
Now I could imagine that it would make a difference ( though slight ) if for example
I were to feed my 200' wire at the far end ( east end ) in which case it might just
receive just a bit better to the west depending upon the frequency.
By the way, my matching transformers are grounded at the feedpoint with about 9' of
ground wire ( horrors! ).
This may be the key right here. Getting the *groundpoint* well away
from the house keeps it out of the hornet's nest of RF that swarms
around most homes, and prevents it from becoming a significant conduit
(at least that's the theory). For most people, this will mean feeding
it at the far end of the antenna. In my own case, I have RF sources at
all points of my smallish yard, so it wouldn't make a lot of difference
where I feed and ground the thing. A windom-style antenna with a
central feed and ground point might help, but even then I'd only be
about 15-20 feet horizontally from any major RF source at best.
I don't think the groundwire length makes that much diff, as long as
it's well away from RFI.
http://www.iserv.net/~n8kdv/pics.htm
Antenna pic is looking west, at the end of the then 100' wire, now extended to 200'.
Pic was taken in Nov. 2001.
Nice setup - nothing too high, over open ground so it's easy to work
on. Even though it's sort of low (maybe ten feet?), you get the
probable advantage of relatively quiet RF environment - well, I guess I
can dream!
BJ
dxAce
Michigan
USA