Topband: Effect of Trees

[EP Swynar]

On 3rd December Mike wrote...

> I am wondering if anyone has thoughts on having just a
> couple of trees very close to a vertical radiator on 160
> meters. may be a number of reasons for this:

> Wondering if that big pine tree and the Cypress trees
> are what is turning my antenna into an air cooled >dummy load?

Hi Mike,

It always astounds me how we all seem to harbour deep dark suspicions in the
matter of placing vertical antennas near trees (non-conductors), yet we
don't hesitate for a minute to run vertical wires mere inches up alongside,
& parallel to, our steel towers (good conductors)...!

My logic may well be flawed, but I'd press a nice tall tree into antenna
service any day --- all the more so in winter, when the sap isn't running &
the tree is probably less of a conductor than it otherwise might be in
summer.

Surely a nearby tree would have have a far less detrimental effect upon an
antenna than a steel structure would...

OK, all you antenna ghurus reading this, go ahead & prove me wrong! Hi Hi

~73~ Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ