TopBand: 160: dipole vs vertical

[Michael Bazley]

Hi all, Conditions at sunset have been good but the qrn is out of this world
S9+40 and crashes lasting 3 to 4 seconds. Unfortunately, at times,  these
old ears cannot cope.
I have been interested in the dipole vs vertical discussion. My Qth is on
top of a hill and the ground is solid granite and I mean solid!! I have a
full sized ground plane up for 80m with the base 20 feet above ground and
signals from that are about 1 s point down on my sloping dipoles. I have
tried verticals on 160 with no success. Any radials have to be at a height
that does not strangle the Xyl!!
Last week I raised my inverted vee dipole to 84 feet above ground and the
ends to 15 feet high. I plan to raise the height a further 12 feet within
the next 4 weeks and hope there will be an improvement in Tx and Rx. 
I will admit that my antenna knowledge is inadequate, ( never too old to
learn ) and perhaps I am not doing the right things. However, when I lived
in G land I had lovely clay soil with a water table 3 feet below the surface
and verticals were great and no radials were needed. Guess  its " horses for
courses ".
73 es dx de Mike VK6HD   


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