Doug Turnbull <mailto:turnbull@net1.ie>
Friday, January 30, 2015 2:28 PM
Hans,
In my case the Beverages were supported by fence posts every fifty feet.
The antennas were kept up for the TB season. My lengths were more than
one wave length approximately 880 feet in one direction and over 1000
feet
in another. I have tried both bi and uni-directional Beverages. Both
work
fine. The ends tapered over about 23/30 feet from a four foot level to a
ground rod at each end. I used transformers from DX Engineering for the
uni-directional and from Radio Spares of New Hampshire for the
bi-directional antennas. Beverages work but I needed to use neighbours
fields and it just became too problematic.
The only reason I can think of putting a Beverage eight to ten feet in
the air is livestock and wildlife. It is harder to raise the antenna up.
Fence posts are very convenient with insulators for electric fences. You
can also obtain three foot insulated posts designed for electric
fencing.
I have not tried these but they should work.
The Hi-Z four square and eight circle fit on my own land though I want
to move them further away as mentioned.
I note Array Solutions has another loop type antenna for receive and
would like to see comparisons between its varieties and K9AY, Beverages,
four square and circle eight. There are Beverages topping 1400 feet used
by K5RX and others which no doubt are even more desirable; there is
much to
be said for living in Texas.
This is not a easy subject. It is not cut and dry and things are
changing. Beverages seem to be the standard but it will depend on the
Beverage. Circle eight people are saying they have done away with
Beverage
farms. Be wary of snake oil. As I say there is so much to learn from
others and the ultimate truth is hard to find.
Now maybe some others can shed some real light on the subject.
73 Doug EI2CN
-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf
Of Earl
Morse
Sent: 30 January 2015 18:03
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Beverage Antenna
Hans,
My experience with the Beverage is limited but that probably puts me
ahead
of about 99% of the ham population who have never built one.
I built a set of NE/NW one wavelength Beverages for XA5T when we used to
contest there. These were single support antennas anchored by a
ground rod
at the feed point and another at the termination. The wire was aluminum
electric fence wire (17 gauge Fido Shock) because it was cheap and
didn't
have to be durable since we laid the antenna out before the contest and
rolled them back up after the contest to use again the next year. The
hardest part was hacking through the brush and cactus to get them
strung up.
I used a fiber glass support (3 sections of military camoflage net
support)
for the center post. The ground rods at the termination and feed point
provided the end anchors.
Performance was good. I used a single balun and fed both antennas at the
same point, allowing me to switch between them with only one run of coax
back to the shack. They were directive and it was easy to switch
between NE
and NW making the W1s go away and the W7s pop up. With this
directivity and
the supposed cardioid pattern I believe the big advantage was
increased S/N
by eliminating noise in one direction while maintaining signal from the
desired direction. They were one wavelength on 160M but we used them
with
success on 80 and 40 as well.
Once you get the initial antenna up, whether it be a wavelength of wire
laying on the ground or a single support model like I built, you will
have
to more than double your efforts to get a readily noticeable
improvement in
the performance of the antenna. You might just want to try the simplest
design and see how it works before improving on it with enhanced
terminations, multiwires, and beefed up ground systems.
Earl
N8SS
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:15:36 -0500
From: Hans Hammarquist via TowerTalk <towertalk@contesting.com>
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Beverage Antenna
Message-ID: <8D20A62EA8E9BAC-F9C-ADD7@webmail-vm060.sysops.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi Fellow Towertalkers,
I'm considering putting "up" a Beverage antenna and have some questions
regarding what I can do and not do to get it work good. I looked in
to it
and find the two-wire version being worthwhile.
How important is it that the two wires are side-by-side. Can one be
on top
of the other? The installation will be a lot easier if one can be on
top of
the other.
Do the wires have to be absolutely parallel?
Do the wires have to be on a straight line or do they have constant
height
above ground? The area I planning to put the antenna is not even but
rather
hilly.
Do the antenna have to be in a clear area or can it be surrounded by
trees?
How close can the trees be? Can I, maybe, use trees as support? I really
don't want to cut too much trees to put this thing up.
What type of ground do I have to install in the far end? I guess a
grounding
rod is not enough.
Is there some phasing device available to make a steerable antenna by
using
two or three Beverage antennae together.? I think I saw or heard about
something about this but don't remember.
Best 73 de,
Hans - N2JFS
------------------------------
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TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
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Earl Morse <mailto:kz8e@wt.net>
Friday, January 30, 2015 12:03 PM
Hans,
My experience with the Beverage is limited but that probably puts me
ahead of about 99% of the ham population who have never built one.
I built a set of NE/NW one wavelength Beverages for XA5T when we used
to contest there. These were single support antennas anchored by a
ground rod at the feed point and another at the termination. The wire
was aluminum electric fence wire (17 gauge Fido Shock) because it was
cheap and didn't have to be durable since we laid the antenna out
before the contest and rolled them back up after the contest to use
again the next year. The hardest part was hacking through the brush
and cactus to get them strung up. I used a fiber glass support (3
sections of military camoflage net support) for the center post. The
ground rods at the termination and feed point provided the end anchors.
Performance was good. I used a single balun and fed both antennas at
the same point, allowing me to switch between them with only one run
of coax back to the shack. They were directive and it was easy to
switch between NE and NW making the W1s go away and the W7s pop up.
With this directivity and the supposed cardioid pattern I believe the
big advantage was increased S/N by eliminating noise in one direction
while maintaining signal from the desired direction. They were one
wavelength on 160M but we used them with success on 80 and 40 as well.
Once you get the initial antenna up, whether it be a wavelength of
wire laying on the ground or a single support model like I built, you
will have to more than double your efforts to get a readily
noticeable improvement in the performance of the antenna. You might
just want to try the simplest design and see how it works before
improving on it with enhanced terminations, multiwires, and beefed up
ground systems.
Earl
N8SS
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:15:36 -0500
From: Hans Hammarquist via TowerTalk <towertalk@contesting.com>
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Beverage Antenna
Message-ID: <8D20A62EA8E9BAC-F9C-ADD7@webmail-vm060.sysops.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi Fellow Towertalkers,
I'm considering putting "up" a Beverage antenna and have some
questions regarding what I can do and not do to get it work good. I
looked in to it and find the two-wire version being worthwhile.
How important is it that the two wires are side-by-side. Can one be
on top of the other? The installation will be a lot easier if one can
be on top of the other.
Do the wires have to be absolutely parallel?
Do the wires have to be on a straight line or do they have constant
height above ground? The area I planning to put the antenna is not
even but rather hilly.
Do the antenna have to be in a clear area or can it be surrounded by
trees? How close can the trees be? Can I, maybe, use trees as
support? I really don't want to cut too much trees to put this thing up.
What type of ground do I have to install in the far end? I guess a
grounding rod is not enough.
Is there some phasing device available to make a steerable antenna by
using two or three Beverage antennae together.? I think I saw or
heard about something about this but don't remember.
Best 73 de,
Hans - N2JFS
------------------------------
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk