Topband: First attempt at beverage antenna, not working as expected

KL7RA kl7ra at ptialaska.net
Sun Jan 16 01:05:33 PST 2011


> My first beverage, I was expecting better results.

Most will mention 250 feet is too short and that might be the reason as it
will not match 9:1 or that 450 Ohm resistor. 

A working beverage is easy to recognize as the noise drops to zero and signals 
really "pop" out of the noise. They are magic antennas when they are built 
correctly and I can tell quickly when one has a problem.

I suggest measuring the antenna with a MFJ 259B and check the SWR. All 
mine run around 2:1 from 1.8 to maybe 2.2 Mhz. If the SWR is high and
the coax and all connections are okay I would change the length some how
to 500+ feet or use one of the variable transformers with its variable resistor
package sold by some companies that sell Beverage electronics.

By the way I built a new Beverage this winter and it didn't work, excess SWR.
I found the new 500 ft spool of RG-6 from Home depot had a bad spot in it 
where there spliced the cable by a simple overlap of the braid. 

73 Rich KL7RA 


More information about the Topband mailing list