----- Original Message -----
From: "N4BAA - Jose Castillo" <n4baa@cox.net>
> For receiving I took enoughwire to install 5 beverages....300 feet was
> the shortest to South America....with ASIA/EU's being 1080 feet long and
> (2) USA's 540 feet long.....and 1080 to VK/ZL. That having been
> said....I could NOT get any of the beverages to play at all.....I was in
> a panic mode! I got a hold of W3LPL, K4XG and some others in an attempt
> to "adjust" something....but to no avail....
>
> As the ground in CUBA is very poor...(all coral)...I tried putting (4)
> 1/4WL radials at each end....nothing...
> I tried them as Beverages on ground as well as up to 7 feet above
> ground.....nothing....
> I tried changing terminating resistor values......nothing....
> I tried connecting a common 'ground' wire from feed end to terminating
> end.....nothing...
> I wound NEW transformers.....nothing....
> I tested/swapped out feed line coax and type of coax......nothing....
> On the Antenna analyzer they ALL looked good!!! ARGHhhhhhhhhhhhh
>
> Setup was same as I have here in VA...which does well....came home with
> same materail on Tuesday....reinstalled them on Wednesday...
> Everything fine!....
Interesting observations, Jose. Beverages are reputed not to work
over highly conductive ground, but sounds like that wasn't your
problem. I wonder if anyone has studied how beverages play over
low-loss high permitivity dielectrics. Maybe the permitivity and loss
tangent of coral is such that it doesn't provide a good image plane
for the beverage. IOW will a beverage work over a good low-loss
insulator? Has anyone looked at this?
Maybe you should consider putting up an array of short verticals.
You can the phasing unit from DX Engineering or build one from
the information on W8JI's website. The phased array should work
well regardless of the soil properties.
BTW, thanks for my 100th DXCC country on topband. I was
beginning to think I would never get there :):)
73, Mike W4EF...................................................
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