About Us

Dave Oldridge · November 10th 07, 11:08 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna

(Rick) wrote in
:

Following is a posting similar to what I made on QRZ.com in reply to a
guy who was asking what kind of antenna to use out west in the
mountains surrounded by tall pines. It summarizes my recent
experiences with a vertical on 80 m here in central New Jersey:

While 4NEC2 is no doubt more accurate than MMANA-GAL barefoot, what I
notice is that an arrray of verticals is usually better in its favored
direction than any dipole below about a half wave.

Now to a more anecdotal discussion. Many years ago, I had an inverted
vee like yours and a pair of Electrospace verticals phased with 16
radials each over Nova Scotia spruce forest type soil. The verticals
clearly outplayed the inverted vee for extreme distances such as the
middle east and VK or ZL. But the UK was more middle distance and mostly
over water. One night Dale (now VE7GL) was testing, for a G2 ham, a
sloper beam array with two steep sloper dipoles mounted either side if a
delta reflector. With the back sloper also tuned as a reflector, these
antennas lay down a very good low-angle pattern. Dale was around 20db
over S9 on the vertical array and around S9 on the vee--according to the
radio I was then using. Lou Varney (G5RV) broke in (using a G5RV) and
mentioned that I was half an S-unit better with him on the vee. I
noticed the same thing at my end. On the vee, Lou was almost equal to
Dale. But on the vertical array, he went down about 3db while Dale came
up about 20db. There was also a noticeable multi-phase quality to both
signals on the vee that disappeared on Dale's signal on the vertical
array.

Now, what I think was happening here was that my vee was picking up a lot
of fairly high angle, multi-hop energy from both stations, while the
verticals were favoring the large low-angle component of Dale's signal.

The moral of the story is that the antennas at both ends need to be
optimum for one another.

Also, verticals do have significant ground losses in all but the most
ideal locations. Raising the vertical(s) several feet above ground and
supplying a resonant wire counterpoise will go a long way to reduce those
losses. Furthermore, even a small active vertical or array can be a very
effective receiving antenna, eliminating a whole lot of near distance QRM
and QRN from your S/N ratio.

Of course back in that day, nothing beat W2HCW's yagi! :-)

--
Dave Oldridge+
VA7CZ
ICQ 1800667

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Switch to Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Threaded Mode

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Soil dielectric constand and conductivity for East Texas	Bob Bob	Antenna	13	March 12th 06 04:50 PM
The Long and Thin Vertical Loop Antenna. [ The Non-Resonance Vertical with a Difference ]	RHF	Shortwave	0	December 27th 05 06:03 PM
How to measure soil constants at HF	Reg Edwards	Antenna	104	June 25th 05 10:46 PM
1/4 wave vertical vs. loaded vertical	Dave	Antenna	6	May 26th 04 01:28 AM
Ground rods in rocky soil	Northern Lights	Antenna	15	November 22nd 03 08:14 AM

Menu

About Us