On Jun 17, 4:24*am, "Brian Denley" wrote:
I have a zig/zag RF Systems MLBA MK4 stainless antenna in a small yard (my
whole city has only 4 square miles and 30,000 people) and it works pretty
well.

RF Systems make great professional grade antenna's, Their instructions
for your antenna are to hang it STRAIGHT, high and angled at 30 deg
for all round reception.

In real life we can't always follow these instructions due to local
problems at your own QTH.

The fact that this antenna works for you in a zig zag is great, but
always remember that STRAIGHT will work even better if you can mount
it like that and have the space and facilities to do it properly.

The thing about wire antenna's is that there are hundreds of designs
and ideas and experimenting is great fun and teaches you a lot. There
are umpteen huge books on wire antenna's and you can argue about them
endlessly.

Antenna's also work quite differently in different locations. A wire
antenna on a large farm far away from the city may work superbly, but
placed on a small city yard, surrounded by buildings and power lines,
it may not work very well at all. There are plenty of ideas for small
yards including active antenna's.

In my small city lot in Joburg I had a 15ft/5m commercially made
vertical that worked very well and was dead easy to mount, but it got
zapped by lightning twice and wiped out my house electrics, so if you
are in a lightning stike area keep away from verticals.

Have fun experimenting and good DX.

John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
Icom IC-7700, Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8. ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
Sangean 803A.
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop.
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx