Topband: Beverage supports - Thinking of Deer...

[Gary Smith]

First of all I want to thank those of you who took the time to answer 
my questions regarding beverages and finally, to the people who 
responded regarding supports.

I ended up getting the two direction system designed by KD9SV and 
sold by radioware/rafiobooks:
http://www.radiobooks.com/products/sv2bevsys.htm

I chose the one designed to work with the military telephone wire 
WD1A which is available inexpensively as surplus. I had originally 
thought I'd like to use the bi-directional one designed by W8JI & 
sold by DXEngineering but it was twice the price and requires 
purchasing very long lengths of 450 ohm window wire which between 
buying two units and 1100 feet of ribbon wire would have been cost 
prohibitive. 

Had there been a revealed way to make two separate wires held apart 
by a PVC parrot stand with the wires at each end be rated at 450 
ohms, I would have tried that as the unit designed by W8JI came with 
high recommendations.

This said, I did go for the cheaper route which does seem to work 
well enough but I am not truly satisfied with the results. I suspect 
the reason for this is the two edged sword I am faced with: The good 
side... I have the wonderful luxury of being right on the ocean with 
a beautiful salt marsh for my radials. Because of this, I apparently 
have a particularly loud signal as I've been told by many DX stations 
I was the loudest stateside signal they are hearing.  
The bad edge: According to ON4UN 4th edition Chapt 7-50 : And I quote 
"The Beverage does not work at all over sea water. Its output is down 
15 dB compared to the same antenna over poor ground and the main 
elevation angle is 45 degrees.{He goes on to say} - The beverages at 
VK0IR erected over a salt water marsh never worked either (as I told 
them would happen).

As it is they do work somewhat. The one going farthest from the salt 
water does hear better than the one leading to it. My K9AY remains 
the quietest and offers the best quality of S/N. I do hear a greater 
signal with the beverages but there is a significant pickup of local 
RFI with the beverages in the evening when people are running their 
digital equipment. The K9ay does a better job removing the RFI. 
Again, to be fair, it appears I have my beverages in exactly the 
wrong spot to give them a real test of value. I'm convinced they 
would be just fine if I could have them away from the salt marsh but 
that unfortunately is the only direction I can run beverages into.

They still are an asset so they will remain in use, I did work a JA 
in the last contest on 160 but was not able to hear him well enough 
on the K9AY.

I someday will relocate from here and will choose a place where I can 
run beverages and I'll bring along my 60 some 130' radials I'm 
currently using on the salt marsh.

I need to experiment with other Rx antennas that might be better 
closer to the ocean. They will have to be fixed, the trees close to 
the house prohibit anything large and rotatable.

Thank you all again for your truly kind and lengthy suggestions, they 
were of great assistance to me.

73,

Gary
KA1J

> I was looking at using PVC & thinking of getting 
> 1/2" or 3/4" PVC and spreading them out every 40 
> feet or so.
> 
> I ventured out today to where these are going to be 
> laid out in a NW & NE direction & mostly there's the 
> 10' tall Phragmites, those marsh reeds that look 
> like they have a bushy squirrel tail on the ends. 
> But there's some open areas the wire will be 
> traveling through as well as some small ponds it 
> will be going over and it's definitely a great place 
> for deer. I see the signs of rutting & quite a few 
> trails in the marsh with both deer & coyote tracks 
> in abundance in the snow & ice.
> 
> I'm sure the deer are being chased by coyotes & will 
> be capable of jumping into my wire no matter how 
> high I put it. I know any support I'll be putting 
> out will be down in a moment if a buck decides to 
> "debark" it with his antlers.
> 
> That said, where deer are present, what's a 
> realistic "good height" to put the beverage supports 
> at?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Gary
> KA1J
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