Topband: Vertical in the woods

[Garry Shapiro]

This is also anecdotal, but FWIW:

I live in dense canyon of second-growth redwoood, a tree that stores a huge
amount of water. Most of the trees are 130 to 160 feet tall (100 years old).
My usual 160 TX antenna is a somewhat-asymmetric dipole(highest point is off
center), suspended from 130 feet, with bent ends, which I call a Perverted
Vee. The flat top--about half of the half-wave--is largely above most of the
surrounding foliage.

A few seasons ago, I erected an Inverted-L with about 80 feet vertical, with
only two raised radials averaging ten feet in height (terrain is highly
asymmetrical). Yes, that is too low and too few radials, but it provided a
comparison.

I never found an instance where the vertical outperformed the Perverted Vee.
Yes, the inadequate ground was undoubtedly part of that, but, being
surrounded by a dense stand of organic lossy verticals was probably also a
factor.

Garry, NI6T

-