RadioBanter - View Single Post

January 2nd 04, 11:28 PM

(Richard Harrison) wrote in message

"Tom stated on this newsgroup that a horizontal dipole at 1/2-wavelength
was inferior to his other antennas---."

Can`t argue with Tom`s observation about his antennas, but it does not
correspond with most observations of horizontal antenna performance when
you have a resonant dipole at 1/2-wave above the earth. Look at Fig 12-D
on page 3-11 of the 19th edition of the ARRL Antenna Book. Maximum
radiation is at 30-degrees above the horizon. From Capt. Lee`s diagram,
that would get you stations as close as 500 miles, and beyond 1000 miles
due to the range of strong elevation angles in the pattern.

I think what Tom is referring to is transmitting. It's quite normal
for a good vertical to beat a dipole on the lower bands regardless of
theory. Even if the dipole is at 1/2 wave up. Heck, I saw this as high
as 40m. My dipole on that band never beat my vertical at night on
longer paths. Tom uses separate antennas for receiving. IE: beverages,
phased short verticals. His transmit verticals are tall towers. Late
at night, my 40m mobile vertical beats my home dipole that is at 40 ft
to any path over 800 miles. My full size 40m elevated ground plane
would thoughly trounce the dipole big time by 2-4 S units depending on
the length of the path. For DX transmitting on the lower bands,
vertical polarization is the best way to go. I'm thoughly convinced of
that by many tests over time. Some mine, some other people like Tom.
MK