I agree with Tom's assessment. I wouldn't be too quick to give up on your
tx 4 square. Having a tx 4 square, a 1/4 wave vertical, and an 8 circle
rx array, I find the 4 square really does hear quite well. My man made
ambient noise level is quite low (during daytime hours when the atmospheric
noise is quiet, I see virtually no manmade noise). In my circumstances the
4 square tx array will dig down and hear those very weak signals (say -115
or -120 dbm, or even less) that the 8 circle array sometimes cannot hear
due to the comparatively small size and capture area of the elements (mine
are 26').
Dave,
Just curious. Why is your 8 circle array so insensitive? Is the circle
small, or is there something in the design causing excessive attenuation?
My array, with passive 20 ft tall elements, comes through 1500 feet or more
of coax. Much of the run is F11 sized, maybe 500 feet or so is 625 CATV
hardline. It has plenty of signal level with no amplifier, and always
out-receives my TX four-square.
Capture area relates to system gain and operating wavelength, not physical
element size (unless that size changes gain). Unless something is causing a
severe sensitivity loss taking some part of the system down very near
receive system noise floor, it should be external noise limited.
73 Tom
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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