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Michael Coslo · October 19th 09, 05:02 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna

wrote:
Hi Steve,

Thanks for the azimuth plot. This was just what I was looking for.

I am on a sand dune above Lake Michigan 32 miles east southeast of the
Sears Tower.

The antenna that I am writing about is the Radio Works 80 Special with
41¹ and 25¹ element lengths. The radiating coax is 10¹ strapped to a
fiberglass mast. The dipole feedpoint is 30¹ above the sand and about
90¹ above Lake Michigan across the road. It is broadside to due north.

I get a lot of contacts from Georgia, Texas and the US northwest but
nothing from Europe, Japan or Australia.

Ahh, you are in the great RF black hole, according to some.

Anyhow, propagation to some of the places you haven't reached might be
problematic. Not really antenna problems.

I work 20m ssb primarily and so have cut and put up a 3/2 wavelength
centerfed dipole; slightly different location but same orientation with
an aluminum mast. Similar performance on 20. With the Palstar tuner; it
loads on 40.

My choices come down to keeping the Carolina Windom up, taking it down
or re-orienting (But I am squeezed by 7200v powerlines and large oak
trees in a terminal forest.).

It would be useful to have azimuth plots for 40 and 80 for this antenna;
if for nothing else than a starting point.

Thoughts?

Maybe time to download EZnec?

The OCF antenna can work very well. I put one up once because the place
where the coax dropped was really handy to my shack entrance. It worked
"well". I did some QRP into California on 80 meters during a contest,
and I worked what I heard. That doesn't specifically mean that the
antenna performed well, but it does mean that I worked QRP into
California on 80 from the middle of PA.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -