Topband: A few beverage planning questions

[bob finger]

Wow:  Lots of questions
1.  Use any old good coax....it does not matter that much on 160 RG58/59 
fine as long as the runs are not in the several hundred feet range.
2. The Beverages need to be as far away from the tower as possible, not 
just the ends.  Ideally you want to be a minimum of 1/2 wave away (that 
is 260 feet!). 
3. there will be interaction with the Beverages...see #2 above.
4.  I have mine in a spoke configuration and have the matching 
transformers about 20 feet away from each other with coax to the rcs4 
switch in the center or hub.  I suspect some interaction but they work 
for me.
5.  I do not know...mine run thru the trees so not exactly straight.
6. the lower the Beverage the less the gain but more noise rejection.  
Try laying em on the ground using insulated #14 from that 500 foot spool 
you bought at the h/w store. Mine would be at two feet but then critters 
trip over it.  Mine are at about 7 feet so I do not hang anyone (much of 
mine are on a neighboring property that is essentially woods and weeds)
7,  I would not worry about tapering down unless you are using looooong 
Beverages. 
8.  Insulated wire will not be as noisy when the weeds/trees/brush rub 
against it in the wind.
9.  I use fence staples, no insulators.  Electric fence insulators with 
a nail work fine too.
10.  I use #14 stranded.  See #6 above
11.  Try for cone of silence lengths per ON4UN book rather than just 
"500 ft"  I have one bi-directional that points about east/west...I use 
it 95% of the time.  You will find terminating the far end will give 
much better performance than bidirectional.  Sounds like you will have 
better rx capability than most of us when you are done.  Go to N3RR web 
site and see how he did it.  Good luck.  73 bob de w9ge


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