Towertalk
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [TowerTalk] VERTICALS NEAR SALT WATER

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] VERTICALS NEAR SALT WATER
From: Mark - N5OT <r-emails@n5ot.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2020 08:08:47 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Dude.  Kindred souls - I worked up a station on Caye Caulker (I was V31NN for a while) but that is all gone now. I had the exact same questions and got the same answer as KK9A gave. QSOs back over the island don't get the famous Team Vertical magic sauce, according to many.  However, I didn't think their citations were very good, sounded somewhat anecdotal, somewhat "conventional wisdom", and just ... not really authoritative. Given that the island was mostly or all coral, I can't imagine it being very conductive.  Not sure what the mainland is made of. Probably dirt and rock, heh.

I sifted and sifted through the literature, looking for everything that said anything like "verticals over salt water are fantastic" (we have seen a lot of that, right?) and nowhere did I ever find any author make a statement that sounded anything like "This only works in the direction of the ocean but not over the land" or "You have to make sure to pick a location that has the ocean in the directions where you want to have this augmentation effect." Granted I am sure I did not read 100% of all of everything published on it.  I sure tried though.  Meanwhile, when I asked, people would look at me like I was an idiot.  "Of course this only works in the direction of the water, you ignorant slut" as if they actually knew the answer.  Which I secretly doubted.  Shhh.  Don't tell anybody.

After all that, I can tell you that when I had verticals on the dock, way out over the ocean (this dock was 300 feet long and I had separate antennas for all the different bands) I was really loud in Europe (absolutely over salt water) and made plenty of noise into the USA (back over the island).

Team Vertical made all their splash from QTHs that had water in the direction of both Europe AND the USA.

So I don't know what to tell ya.  Ultimately I was going down there because I was having such a great time, and I really had nothing left to prove.  Mission accomplished.  Good luck.  Stay out of trouble.

73 - Mark N5OT


On 7/14/2020 4:43 AM, Bill via TowerTalk wrote:
Still assessing antenna options for the new station.
One parcel has about 95 feet of ocean front facing south.  Of course  the idea of verticals comes to 
mind.  Here is the issue. .  If the vertical is located at the shoreline,  I know any vertical will 
work like gangbusters in the southern direction.  However, will the salt water effect be lessened in the opposite 
direction (north) and by how much?  And, how much would the directions to the NE and NW be affected.
My gut feeling is to the north it would not be anywhere as good as it is to the 
south and to the NW and NE is would be a little better than the north but not 
anywhere near as good as to the south.  Am I right?
Bill K4XS/KH7XS/  V31XX (soon)
_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk

_______________________________________________



_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>