[CQ-Contest] Inverted-V under a Yagi on the same band?

[Rick Kiessig]

I'm thinking about mounting an inverted-V about a half-meter under a
multi-band SteppIR-type Yagi at about 10m height, with the Inv-V covering
one or two of the same bands as the Yagi (probably 15m and 20m). I've heard
this can de-tune the Yagi, but some EZNEC modeling seems to show that it
would be workable. There's strong coupling when they're pointed in the same
direction on the same band (including loss of the back-side lobe for the
Inv-V), and very little when they're perpendicular.

 

My motivations here are: being able to listen in two directions at the same
time, one on each VFO; getting better high-angle support by feeding the
Inv-V out of phase; listening on two different bands at the same time; and
possibly diversity reception or at least a stack-type choice of
upper/lower/both to optimize antenna choice for a given QSO.

 

EU/JA and NA are about 90 deg apart from my QTH, so I was thinking of fixing
the Inv-V on EU/JA, leaving the beam free to cover NA and other directions.

 

Have others tried this type of stacking arrangement? Is it workable in
practice? Any gotchas?

 

73, Rick ZL2HAM