Topband: Antenna Advice Plus K9AY Questions

[Scott WA9WFA]

I've been going through the archives looking at various K9AY questions and answers, and I know you guys have been patiently answering the periodic antenna and K9AY questions.  I hope you don't mind a few more topband antenna questions specific to my application.     

I currently have a 160 meter dipole/inverted vee.  It's squeezed onto my 50' x 264' lot.   It's more Vee than dipole  because the legs aren't 180 degrees at the center, but maybe 135.  One leg runs from the garage to the top of the two story house, while the other leg run down the hill to a small tree at the bottom of the hill.   The bottom of the hill is at a lake. The wires run about NE,SW, with the center on top of a two story house.   The garage leg is within 20' of the street power pole and 10' to the power line that runs to the drop pole near the house.   The inverted vee favors NW/SE but I'd rather have some directivity and gain to the NorthEast and East.  

My goal is to increase the current signal strengths from the E & NE direction by 1 or 2 S-units, lower noise, and improve signal to noise ratio.  Yeah yeah, don't we all.... and I want to be rich and good looking too... hi hi  

I've been spending alot of time browing the web looking at magnetic loops, receiving loops, inverted L's, verticals, and then drolling over  the candy like Beverages, 4 square, K9AY.  

I was lamenting to Eddy VE3CUI today about my lot and not having the space for such things as a K9AY or changing orientation of my inverted vee to get better NE coverage.  He challenged me on that so I took a much closer look at a K9AY.  I might be able to make it work, and so here are my questions.

1.  I only have clear space for a K9AY on the lake side, down the hill from the house.  This spot happens to be the farthest away from the power lines and poles, maybe 100' away from the drop pole.  The hill is open to the North, East, and Southwest.     A K9AY loop that ends 15' up the hill from center will be higher than the loop ends 15' down the hill from center.   All the pictures of K9AY implementations show these wide open spaces and fields with the K9AY plopped out in the open.  Do you think the Array Solutions K9AY would work efficiently or be spectacular on a hill situation like this? 

2.  How do you think the receive signal strength or signal to noise ratio might compare with the inverted vee?   I listened to the .wav file on the Array Solutions website and heard the difference there.   I'm trying to get a good feeling on the risk and chances of success with this antenna before parting with the money and installing the antenna.

3.  Can I expect similar spectacular performance on 80 meter cw as well?  

4.  Why couldn't I just attach an Advanced Receiver Research preamplifier to the 160 meter inverted vee to achieve that 1 - 2 S-unit improvement?  ARR is suggesting one could see 6-14 db improvement in signal to noise ratio.  Thats 1-2 S-units. 

5.  I've been pondering a 160 meter antenna configuration that is sort of an inverted L, originating at the base of the tree at the bottom of the hill, a few feet away from the lake.  I was wondering how well an antenna with a remote tuner at the base of the tree, a bunch of radials running up the hill, and several across the 10' beach and into the lake.  Then the vertical part runs up a pole in the tree to maybe 25' then turns and runs up the hill to the top of the house, maybe 100' - 125' away. It could actually go up to the inverted vee pole, through an insulator and continue into the street side of the yard a ways.  It's not actually an inverted L because the angle isn't 90.  It might be more like 135.   I have no idea what to expect from such a configuration.  

Thanks for your comments and advice.  73, Scott WA9WFA on a skinny lake lot in Minnesota