Cecil Moore wrote:
It depends upon what you want your radiation pattern
coverage to be from your particular QTH. I orient my
130 foot dipole so that my radiation lobes point toward
the world's large land masses on 20m. The free demo
version of EZNEC available from eznec.com will tell you
what direction your lobes are pointing.

I tried using the demo version of EZNEC, but haven't figured it out yet.
I don't really know yet what I want my radiation pattern to be because
I've had an HF radio now for three weeks, and only a 10 meter dipole.
(tuner to be delivered this weekend). Of course I have made no contacts
on 10 meters. I tried CW on 15 meters (yes, on my 10 m dipole with no
tuner, at low power) but no one has answered. Probably because of my
slow wpm. ;-)

Anyways, I'm not sure yet what to expect as far as making contacts.
Would I have a better shot from east or west, or would I have a better
shot north and south?

Well, before I go too far off topic, I read ch. 7 from the ARRL Antenna
book, and I think the best for me as far as antennas go, is the 135 foot
dipole fed with 450 ohm window line, and it will have to go east/west
which means I might be talking to Santa this year! ;-)

So, I guess what I should have asked was, what would be the best
orientation for a dipole in New England in order to make contacts at
this time of year and at this point in the sun spot cycle.

Ok, having said all of that, I have some ideas for shorter dipoles that
can hang north/south. So there is much experimenting in my future. :-D

Busy weekend, be listening for me on cw!


Jim
kb1odg