On 5/22/2011 1:04 PM, 'Captain' Kirk DeHaan wrote:
I'm living in a wooded area and am trying to hit our club repeater
reliably. It's cloudy now so I'm and getting a bit of ducting but I have
a lot of trees, mostly poplars, in the direct path. I would have a line
of sight if not for the trees as I'm up enough in altitude. I can cut
the trees, they're mine, but finding the right ones is difficult and i
don't want to waste the whole grove.

I go from keying the repeater with no intelligible signal to not being
able to hit it. Today I actually have an S meter reading due to the
clouds. I am currently using a J-pole and will put up a Yagi soon but
wonder if NVIS would work on 2m? I have only seen references to it being
applied in HF.

'Captain' Kirk DeHaan
N6SXR

Your yagi may fix your problem completely. Other things to consider:

* Try moving your existing antenna. Even a small movement may cure the
problem as you may have cancelling reflections at times. There is almost
always a "sweet spot" somewhere in the vicinity.

* Try tilting your antenna to 45 degrees and see if that helps. It might
improve reception due to the random polarization of the incoming signal
caused by the trees.

Note: do this on a day when the signal is either weak or non-existent.
You can always apologize for kerchunking. Or, use your S-meter if you
have one.

Cheers & Good Luck,
John
KD5YI