Topband: Sloping of Beverage Antenna Ends

[Phil Clements]

I notice reoccurring references to sloping Beverage ends in recent posts.
This procedure was probably fostered in the early issues of "Low-Band DXing"
and earlier articles. It has been later proven by W8JI and others, including
me, that there is no advantage whatsoever to this practice. I have four
720-foot bidirectional Beverages by DX Engineering here. They were installed
according to the instructions. The ends of each are supported by 4 X 4
treated wood poles. The ladder line comes strait down each pole. The entire
720-foot span is supported at a height of seven feet on each antenna. As
several others have reported, I have had no deer damage at this height, but
massive and frequent very destructive hits to the ladder line by falling
tree branches and rotten trunks.

 

The bottom line is to run your Beverage in a horizontal plane from end to
end. This will help eliminate "critter" damage, and doe not degrade
performance at all.

 

(((73)))

Phil, K5PC