Topband: Boring Report

[Paul Kelley N1BUG]

>
>
>That's good to know because last year I had miserable luck getting my 
>beverage experiment to work in sloping terrain.
>

Interesting. In support of Tree's statement about Beverages in ravines, 
I have a similar (?) situation. I have 4 Beverages, 485 feet south, 590 
feet southwest, west, and northwest. All of these Beverages have at one 
time or another been terminated and worked fine; however at the moment 
all are unterminated so that I can get bi-directional receive to cover 
the other directions where I cannot run wires.

The northwest Beverage runs mostly level along the bottom of the ravine 
for roughly two thirds of its length, close to the northeast wall of the 
ravine. In other words the ground slopes up sharply on the northeast 
side of the wire. The ravine curves near the end of that Beverage, so 
the final 150 feet goes up hill some 50 feet and ends below the top of 
the slope. The south Beverage runs level about 50 feet from the 
feedpoint, then slopes down at an angle of 30 to 40 degrees to the 
bottom of the ravine some 60 feet lower, then more or less level the 
remainder of the length. The southwest Beverage runs level for about 75 
feet, then slopes down at a steep angle to the bottom of the ravine some 
80 feet lower, then mostly level for the rest of its length. The west 
Beverage runs mostly level for the first 100 feet, then slopes 
diagonally down the ravine wall, dropping about 80 feet in elevation and 
then level for the rest of its length. All of these antennas allow me to 
easily copy stuff that isn't even a whisper on the inverted V. I can't 
say whether they work as well as a perfectly level Beverage, but they 
work well enough to be a huge advantage. They seem to have about the 
expected directivity for Beverages of this length.

By the way, the entire area is forest, quite dense in places. The wires 
are supported 8 to 10 feet above ground by trees and do not run 
perfectly straight. The overall direction is consistent, but there are 
minor deviations in direction along the length of the wires as I used 
available trees for all the supports.

Actually I should have said all this was working great last season. This 
season I have new power line noise problems that frequently wreak havoc 
on my ability to hear anything. Oh well, another challenge. 
Unfortunately the new noise sources are all off the ends that could be 
terminated, so if I terminated the Beverages I would be making 
unidirectional antennas, eash pointed at a noise source. The *other* 
directions are quiet (I think...), naturally.

73,
Paul N1BUG