Topband: Need to know more about beverages...

[Gary Smith]

> Well, it was a scramble trying to make these hastily thrown 
together 
> beverages for the contest. I found some interesting discoveries 
which 
> means I need to learn more.
> 
> Radio is a K3. The preamp is turned off in the K3

First off I want to thank the many people who have written both to me 

directly and back to the reflector as well, regarding my Beverage 
query. It's nice to find the camaraderie and people willing to take 
their time to offer their expertise.

After 30 years on the air this was my first attempt at a beverage. My 

father who has been a ham 70 years used something like a beverage & 
he called it that but it was 200' long and was terminated at a copper 

pipe by a direct connection to the pipe. This was the closest I have 
come in contact with a "Beverage" till now and it appears his was 
less than optimal though he always bragged how well he could hear 
with it.

Following the suggestions of several people, I looked at W8JI's site 
and I do have ON4UN's 4th edition. There's much to assimilate and 
frankly, without knowing where to start, it's pretty easy to get lost 

in the details. Looking in the ARRL's antenna book and John's book, 
it's like a kid in a candy store being told to select one. Ain't no 
way that kid (me) is going to know which one is the most logical 
choice.

Based on the suggestions received, I did run 100' of coax to a remote 

ground. I do believe that made a significant improvement. It seems a 
North south beverage will be of limited use to me so I need to 
reorient that one to more of a nw/se direction. In the interim, I 
disconnected the E/W ant which came to the house and attached that to 

the coax and the transformer & a grounding rod 

I did not terminate that antenna as I am still trying to decide where 

to go at this point. As I am more interested in DX than stateside 
ragchews, I want to have the lobe pointing east but my beverage runs 
west from the house. If I terminate that with a resistor, the null 
will be towards EU, benefit; stateside. 

I'm trying to understand how to have this antenna work eastward 
without running 600' of coax to the western end and feeding it from 
there with the resistor being on  end. As there are two wire 
beverages which allow for switching for either direction, I'm sure 
the answer is there.

I looked at the DX Engineering website and looked at their two 
direction RBSA-1P setup but for $200, I'd still need 500' of 450 ohm 
ladder line and that is getting too pricey. -  I do have the 
available wire as in CAT wire but trying to run two of them and 
having the impedance be correct is just not likely.

Much more to understand but I'm on my way.

Thanks again for the many helpful replies, I really appreciate it.

73,

Gary - ka1j