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Topband: Using an MFJ1026

To: <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: Topband: Using an MFJ1026
From: W8JI@contesting.com (Tom Rauch)
Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 08:15:54 -0500
Hi Richard,

I use a similar unit for phasing my beverages. I my units 100% of 
the time, but I have identical Beverages that I phase together or 
phase against a transmitting antenna. 

The 1025-1026 is, by a large margin, better than any other system 
on the market. If anything works, it will. This of course excludes a 
case where something is wrong with the particular unit or situation 
you have.

Remember these things actually work by phasing antennas 
together. If you have noise sources from multiple directions they 
will take out noise only in one general direction and angle.

The inside antenna is virtually useless, unless the noise bothering 
you is close to  the unit.

> receiving capabilities on Top Band. I have several beverages installed
> from 1000 feet to 600 feet long but they never seem to hear better than my
> transmit antenna (T-top vertical). When I listen on the transmit antenna I
> turn the receiver RF gain way down and I can sometimes hear a weak signal
> that way.

Do you have reasonable ground systems at each Beverage, and 
are the feedlines well grounded or decoupled with common mode 
chokes? Are they clear of other wires and conductors?

> The difference, I think, is the ground conductivity. In New York, the
> ground was rocks and gravel which was a poor ground. My new QTH here in
> Texas is part of the blacklands prairie which has excellent ground
> characteristics. The end results is that the beverages here do not hear
> very well. 

I had Beverages in the "Black Swamp" of Ohio, where ground 
conductivity is an exceptional 30-40 mS/M. They worked quite well, 
despite the earth being water soaked black sandy loam. 

Short of being over salt-water, I can't imagine a Beverage not 
working unless something is wrong. Your soil is good, but not that 
much less loss than average soil. It takes almost perfect earth to 
make the antenna quit working. 
 
73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com



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