On Tue, 7 Jun 2005 19:12:53 -0700, "Al Lorona"
wrote:

Hi, Everybody,

Hi Al,

How does one determine the correct antenna takeoff angle to communicate over
a certain distance?

Ooooh, that's gonna sting!

I can't find any references anywhere that discuss this, taking into account
all of the variables: height of ionosphere, frequency, etc.

Try propagation modelers. VOACAP has been around for a good 10 years
now, with recent upgrade to VOAWIN.

The trouble is, we do not seem to have a good way to determine this 'best'
height ahead of time. One would, I guess, have to vary the height of the
antenna while the other station monitored your signal strength, and one
would have to do this over several days, weeks, or months to get good,
averaged data. But... isn't there a better way to do this?

The better question is could you even hope to achieve this little?
Aside from having your own antenna farm, DX is a spin of the wheel and
most simply try.

Perhaps you should use the propagation modeler to investigate the
range of variation of DX paths and heights associated with what you
can throw into the air.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC