This is a copy of my post to the 3830 reflector....
FT1000 MK-V transceiver - TRLOG - and an old 256K Pentium with Windows
98... One really old op with bad hearing, lousy CW skills, and
Alwhatshisname's disease who drove from 3 states away on Friday to get home in
time for the contest...
I use CQWW for antenna testing, nor really for contesting - as you can tell
from the qso to country ratio... This years test antenna, a 2 element vertical
array, is the best yet doubling last years country count... The reference
antenna is, as always, the dipole at 120 feet, hanging in the North-South
direction... Europe is at a 45 degree angle to the pattern - but the towers
do not rotate <sigh> OTOH, the dipole was king on the 6W1 qso...
It is fascinating to follow the change in the receive vertical arrival
angles during the night... Roughly 2/3 of the time both the vertical antenna
and the high dipole will copy/work the arriving signals, though one or the
other may be favored by an S-unit, or so... At times the dipole is the
favored antenna and at other times the lower angle vertical is better - when
the vertical array is favored it can be slight or as much as 3 to 6 S-units!
I have seen signals that were S7-S9 on the vertical array that were in the
noise on the dipole... The old adage that you can never have too many antennas
is still valid...
There are times on transmit when the vertical array and the dipole will show
roughly the same S reading on the signal, but one will make the qso and the
other won't... Of course, it can be pure chance that I don't get the Q on one
antenna and then do get it on the other... Other times, I can tell that the DX
station is not hearing one antenna at all but responds to the other
immediately... Yet, the receive signals are roughly the same... I still
don't have a solid theory on this, but I'm working on it... If only CQWW came
more often...
With the two element vertical array having a 10dB, or more, FB ratio the
need for a Beverage is definitely less... The high dipole always has more
receive noise than the two element array... I can often hear better on the
directional array even when using the dipole for transmit... A vertical
antenna, a single or a 2 element array, and a dipole or horizontal loop will
give the space limited ham a better chance at increasing the country count
over using just one or the other...
cheers ... denny
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See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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