On Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:20:32 -0700, Roy Lewallen wrote:
Frnak McKenney wrote:
--snip--
Still, my current indoor loop seems to be picking up a nice strong
signal. It was upright when I first started testing, but it wound up
being laid flat at some point in the past few days -- about the time
I discovered that I had been mis-tuining it. Wonder which had more
effect: my changes, or atmospherics? grin!

As I mentioned in my other recent posting, there's no way for you to tell.

I noticed. Yesterday all those really clear tones and voice
segments vanished while I wasn't paying attention. I can still hear
enough WWV on occasion to know it's still there, but it's not even
close to being strong enough to start the clock running.

Anyway, thank you for your time and suggestions. I did some looking
around on the 'web for introductory material to help me understand
the ARRL Antenna Handbook and stumbled onto these:

Antenna Newcomers and the Language of Antennas
http://www.cebik.com/tales/nc.html

Antennas from the Ground Up
http://www.cebik.com/gup/groundup.html

Some really nice propagation plots. Now, if there were just some
simple way of figuring out which way the antenna is oriented
relative to the plots... "It's an imperfect universe" grin!

You can duplicate the plots for the kinds of simple antennas you're
dealing with, with the free demo version of EZNEC available from
http://eznec.com. In the View Antenna display, select View/Objects, then
check the "2D Display" box. Then you'll see a 2D plot superimposed on
the view of the antenna, to show how the two are related. When viewing a
3D plot, the View Antenna display rotates along with the 3D pattern, so
you can see how they're related if you keep both windows open.

Thanks for the pointer; I didn't knwo that there was a free version
available. I'll check it out when I get a chance


Frank
--
"Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated.
You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps."
-- David Lloyd George, British Statesman
--
Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates
Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887
Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut minds pring dawt cahm (y'all)