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[george554@austin.relay.ucm.org (george554@austin.relay.ucm.org)]

eric
 
what i have seen over the last 11 years -- and during many diffrents
times of the year is that the 15m ja stack is the best ja antenna when
the band is open.  during the early or late part of the opening the 
high antenna is the best antenna but this is usually only for a short
period of time.  if the band is marginal - ie. does not really
"open" to ja then the high antenna is the better antenna. 
 
i have used this antenna all through the cycle and i will say that
it is one antenna at n5au that i DO NOT want to change or take down.
 
as trey said this antenna is very quiet - it has a very tight pattern
and is not useful for working CA stations or much else. it is a very
good antenna to ja and washington/ve7 (just ask one of the w7's) we are
very loud there.  the pattern is very tight and has proven very useful
at rejecting unwanted junk from other directions. in fact the pattern is
so tight that it took me a lonng time to get used to the idea that
i had to transmit on other antennas often or i would switch to a single
antenna to work a vk/zl or some such and find that i had someone on
my frequency calling cq - with a good signal!  of course you could not
hear them on the ja antenna.
 
 
the only other directions that i have observed ja's coming in from
are long-path (se) and a scatter path over the south pacific. 
 
both of these paths are not workable with this antenna. but fi there
are ja's on 15m (from texas) they are usually short path or not workable.
 
i have experinced more scatter and lp to ja on 10m -- at the bottom of
the cycle or during the summer the scatter over the pacific
is usually the only way to work a ja on 10m. 
 
geoiii
wb5vzl
george554@austin.relay.ucm.org
 
 
trey may be correct on the heights and spacing. (even thought i have climbed
all of the n5au towers --- some more times than i care to remember)