Topband
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Topband: Beverage upgrade question

To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: Beverage upgrade question
From: Artek Manuals <Manuals@ArtekManuals.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2022 17:00:38 -0400
List-post: <mailto:topband@contesting.com>
The other thing I have noticed with my BEV's and BOGs is propagation mode can cause quite a bit of variability in RDF or F/B. Using other than a local station for measurement can give inconsistent and confusing results. Often the RDF on some gray line signals will not be as good compared to later in the evening. I  attribute (but have no way of actually measuring) this to be possibly a a function of the arrival angle of the signal . I have seen several references to the possibility that gray line propagation is sometimes thought to the result of "ducting" and the signals are arriving at higher angles than signals arriving at lower angles via more common F-layer propagation ??

 Dave
NR1DX

On 8/24/2022 10:54 AM, David Olean wrote:


On 8/24/2022 9:03 AM, w5zn@w5zn.org wrote:
Hi Kenny,

Over the past 12 or more years I've conducted numerous comparisons of different receive antennas on the low bands. I'm fortunate to have enough land to lay all of them out with adequate spacing and perform A/B comparisons. I am in a rural area that is relatively quite although over those 12 years I have seen the noise floor gradually increase up to 5 dB in a couple of directions! A battle I continually fight!!

One thing I have emphasized over the years is the realized performance of any antenna will be different depending on the geographical location. Another point is most times radio amateurs have unrealistic expectations of what the performance of a specific antenna will be.

With that said, I have compared the antenna you are considering at your QTH here at W5ZN with a single Beverage that you currently use. I could not document any noticeable improvement between the two. That's not to say there wasn't any improvement, it just was not noticeable.

I begin to notice a difference when the RDF is increased by more than 1.5dB. I realize this is splitting hairs when we're claiming only a few tenths of a dB difference but that is based on my real world documented comparison.

The most significant improvement I have documented is moving from a Beverage to a phased vertical array. The Hi-Z and BSEF 8 vertical arrays are the top, with the HiZ outperforming the BSEF by just a tad due to the HiZ-8's improved F/B and F/S performance. The YCCC-9 is also an excellent performer. My measurements have also confirmed the modeling data for all of the arrays. I presented this data at Contest University - Dayton this year.

So my recommendation is to erect the new Beverage and give it a try. You may very well notice a improvement. If constructed correctly, it should be an improvement even if only a few tenths of a dB RDF and it won't be a loss !

73 Joel W5ZN





On 2022-08-23 14:07, Kenny Silverman wrote:
In a rural area with no significant man made noise, if you redesign a
beverage for better RDF when do you start to notice a difference?

I’m considering upgrading my single EU beverage at 625’ (190m) to a
pair in echelon where will each be 550’ (168m) with 20’ (6m) spacing
. The increase in RDF is 0.8 dB - will it be noticeable?

I realize if there’s noise in a direction where you reduce the energy
you will better hear the difference , but my EU beverage is quiet.
Though the F/B change will help with thunder storms off the back.

Overall I tend to receive better than I transmit to EU.

73 , Kenny K2KW
_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector

--
Dave Manuals@ArtekManuals.com www.ArtekManuals.com

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com
_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>