Topband: Extending the Beverage

[Richard Karlquist]

Very interesting!  I have a set of
530 ft beverages about 2 feet high.
Last summer, I inserted a relay at
the 400 ft point of one of them,
and A/B'ed 400 ft vs 530 ft.  I
tested on broadcast band, 160 and
80.  I couldn't tell the difference!
I also measured the current along
the wire, and it was down considerable
by the time it got to 400 ft.  The
attenuation was more severe as
frequency increased.  I also tried
raising the beverage higher, but
it didn't change the current distribution
much.

BTW, I found a big improvement going
from 10 to 2 feet in height.  If you
can possibly do that, it might help
a lot more than extra length.  I was
going to make an adjustable height
Beverage that I could lower for DXing
and raise for mowing.  But that was
before I discovered Roundup.

Rick Karlquist    N6RK
richard@karlquist.com
www.n6rk.com
www.karlquist.com