Topband: Elevated beverage

[Tom Rauch]

> Wonder if anyone has ever tried to elevate a beverage above ground, by
> using relatively tall poles, 20' or so high.  Run two wires, one
> directly above the other, separated by 5-10 ft.  The top wire would
> serve as the normal beverage wire, and the bottom wire would
> substitute for the ground.  The terminating resistor and matching
> transformer would be the same as with a normal ground mounted
> beverage.

While it might hear something, I think you would be sadly 
disappointed if you compared that to a normal properly installed 
Beverage. The second wire will not act like a ground, nor do you 
want a "good ground" below a Beverage. 

> about what kind of antenna he could use it for.  Then I was reading
> W1WCR's beverage book where he mentions that for HF, the beverage
> should work better over good ground instead of over poor soil; in fact
> he recommends running an insulated ground wire directly under the
> beverage wire to improve the effective ground conductivity.

Unfortunately once something makes it in print, no matter how 
unfounded, it reappears year after year.

Beverages work because of attenuation of the wave as it 
propagates along the lossy earth, NOT in spite of the attenuation! 
Beverages will totally stop working when the ground below the 
antenna becomes perfect. There is a smooth and steady reduction 
in performance as ground conductivity below the antenna increases.

That being the case, the theory that adding a ground system under 
a Beverage's length is helpful is clearly unfounded.
73, Tom W8JI
W8JI@contesting.com