Topband: Vertical vs Inverted Vee

[Lars Harlin]

When I first moved to the present location, I put up an inverted Vee - just to be on the band. Thats almost 10 years ago and it still hangs there. A simple dipole with it's apex at about 16 - 17 meters.

This antenna wont give me any DX, I said to myself. But it does. Must say that after several seasons, I'm surprised how this "short skip antenna" still can work so relatively well on DX!? 

When comparing the far field in EZNEC we can see that: At all angles above 20 degrees the inverted Vee puts out more energy than the vertical. Saying that everything goes straight up is defenitly wrong! 
Assuming that 15 degrees is an optimum angle for, lets say distances of 5000 - 7000 km, it could explain why the dipole not is that far behind the vertical. 

Is the assumption wrong? Is EZNEC flawed? Or am I flawed?  :-)

If not, why bother with miles of radials if your main target is within that range...

nb. simulation is done with the same type of ground description.


73 de Lars, SM3BDZ