Topband: Beverage height issues

[Steve Flood]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ford Peterson"

> This discussion is somewhat tainted by everybody's personal experience. 
> And
> I don't think experience translates well from QTH to QTH.
> In practice, we design our beverages based on other circumstances.
> The bottom line is that ANY beverage is better than NO beverage.
>What you find in terms of performance is going
> to be dictated by the dozens of variables that make up your 
> experience--and
> it likely will not translate to results elsewhere.

My own personal experience with beverage experiments has been 
disappointing - at my QTH of course.  I tried on two occassions to string a 
beverage about 1000 feet toward EU.  My circumstances dictated that that the 
beverage had to be 8 to 10 feet over ground (to permit bull elk and moose to 
pass freely underneath).  It had to be strung through dense timber, over 
very rocky ground, and up a 30% uphill slope. Using the 'minimum current 
variation along the beverage length' method, my termination was 1.2k. 
Grounding consisted of rods as deep as I could pound them (4-6 feet), and 
several on-the-ground 'radials' ementating from the ground rod outward.  I 
was confident that my bino-core transformer and feedline were in good shape. 
Yet - the beverage was fairly deaf - only hearing high-angle short-haul 
signals.  It could not hear the EU DX that my K9AY or my vertical could.
My experience.  My circumstances.  My QTH.
Good points Ford, yet in my case 'ANY' beverage was not better than NO 
beverage.

Steve, KK7UV