That kinda the same conclusion I came to, Roy.
Asked on the VHF reflector, too-- the antenna was
apparently made by Telerex, and called the "Spiralray".
But tho it was touted as one that would work with
BOTH polarizations, I always wondered IF it worked-
and IF so, WHY no one ever duplicated it!
Like SOME old memories about radio, guess this one is
(Like TVI in the AM days, on Ch#2) best FORGOTTEN!!

No Free Lunch--(sigh)!

Tnx es 73, JIM



Roy Lewallen wrote:
If you do a bit of analysis with a modeling program, I think you'll find
that if you generate a circularly polarized signal, it'll become nearly
linearly polarized once it reflects from the ground. And it's nearly
impossible, and often undesirable, to prevent ground reflection at HF.
There might be a way to generate a signal that's circularly polarized
after reflection, but I don't know how to do it.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Jim-NN7K wrote:
Don't know if can explain this the best way, but in the
late '50's, early 60's there was a 6 meter antenna,
that was a YAGI design, but with a TWIST (Literally).
The Reflector was Horizontal, the 1st Director was
VERTICAL, and the other elements were "Skewed" so as
to imitate a helix , over the length of the boom
(some 25-35 FEET).

A normal helix, if memory serves, is wound 1/4 wavelength
to obtain circular polarization-- and the same for
satellite antennas, cross polarized , and offset by 1/4
wave, (and fed either 90 , or 270 degrees out of phase
from each other . For Right hand, or Left hand circular.

My question is 2 fold: 1) Did the Long Design really
generate Circular polarization (-3dB down in ALL polarizations)
or was this tilting at windmills.
and 2), for Circular polarization, does the constraint of
1/4 wavelength need to be applied to a (given) antenna?

Reason for this is an antenna that will pretty much
avoid polarity shifts, during band openings, or am I
Halucinating again?? Your thoughts Please
Jim NN7K