On Sun, 22 May 2011 17:55:16 -0500, John KD5YI
wrote:

* 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.

I beg to differ. I have about 30 years experience in dealing with
propogation through a dense redwood forest (Ben Lomond CA). The trees
in my area are about 120ft high. While moving the antenna around may
temporarily improve the signal quality by reducing frequency selective
fading, multipath, reflections, and just plain bad luck, they do not
tend to remain improved. Trees grow and move around. What works well
now, will probably not work well tomorrow.

I gave up on fixed antenna mounts for my rooftop verticals. (Well, I
have one mounted on a tripod, but that was before I realized what was
happening). Most of my verticals are mounted on 2x12 planks, held
down to the roof with sand bags, concrete blocks, and buckets full of
water. Every few months, I move the antennas around to see if I can
improve the signals to specific repeaters.

* 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.

I beg to differ again. Tree trunks are mostly water and do an
impressive job of simulating a slot type polarization filter at 2m and
440Mhz frequencies. Leaves and branches will pass RF fairly well, but
not tree trunks. I've played with both polarizations, circular
polarization:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/circular-polarization/
and some diversity reception. Empirically, signals are about 6dB
stronger going through the trees vertically polarized, than
horizontal. The effect continues up to at least 2.4GHz. Above that,
at 5.7GHz, the signals seem to be going through the holes between the
leaves.

I must admit that I haven't actually tried 45 degrees on 2m or 440Mhz,
but I don't think it will help much. Still, it's an easy thing to
try.

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.

Do it on a windy day, when the trees are moving around, so you can see
how much it will change.

Cheers & Good Luck,
John
KD5YI

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558