Lee,
I'm not sure if you are looking for other ideas or an opinion on your
proposal. As to the latter, I think a vertical is not a good performer for
FD, since it's a low angle radiator and it doesn't get the benefit of gain
from ground reflections that a horizontal antenna gets. Then, if you
elevate it, the overhead null in the pattern will get even bigger, reducing
your NVIS capability. So I am pretty sure that even one simple inverted-V
at 40 ft will outperform that vertical on FD.
However, I do like the idea of trying different and unusual antennas
each FD. We used to do the same thing at a club in Massachusetts with a few
of the experiments being extremely successful in terms of points on 40m.
The most successful were an 11 element 40m wire LPDA and two element diamond
shaped Moxon yagis on 40 and 80. The LPDA was a kind of lark in putting up
something ridiculously big, but that night we ruled our 40m CW frequency
from sundown to sunup and then used it on SSB the rest of Sunday.
These antennas worked so well that we realized we had a shot at the top
ten overall and maybe number one in 5A if we worked at it. So over the next
few years everyone concentrated on refining the other aspects of our
operation and we ended up in the top ten overall and in the top two or three
in 5A for a number of years running. This was the Billerica Amateur Radio
Club (BARS) in the early to mid 90s.
Having moved away in the mid-90s, I really miss FD with those guys.
They are a fun loving and very talented group of ops. We always said that
this was the most fun you can have on emergency power.
Dudley - WA1X
Lee wrote......
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 08:55:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lee Buller <k0wa@swbell.net>
Subject: [TowerTalk] FD Antenna Discussison - Just for Fun
To: TowerTalk Reflector <towertalk@contesting.com>
Message-ID: <20050425155527.47738.qmail@web81306.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Just thinking about FD here....
We like to try different antennas each year ad FD and I am looking at an
elevated vertical. Since I am in Kansas, I can radiate poorly in all
directions and get contacts. So, I was thinking of using an elevated 40
meter verticle mounted in a tree with 6 to 8 radials.
Anyone have any words of wisdom about this that I haven't seen or read
Lee - K0WA
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