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

[Tom Boucher]

Just a few comments to Mark WD4ELG: 

I too have a single short Beverage, about 350' over clay soil and sloping up a hill to the west, fed with about a quarter mile of RG58. It's really too short for top-band, but it does work. Myself and some other Gs have been carrying out daily long path tests with ZL3IX each morning at sunrise for a long while and the beverage has shown itself to be definitely a great advantage over the transmit antenna, an inverted 'L' at 80' and located well away from the house. 

The transmit antenna itself is not a bad one for receiving as I am in an electrically quiet rural location. Usually signals are slightly better on the Beverage but not hugely. Then occasionally there is a huge difference. An example of this was 2 mornings ago when Greg was peaking an excellent 579 on the short bev, but was barely readable on the 'L'. I'm not at all sure of the propogation mechanism at work here - anyone any ideas?

I usually use the two antennas in diversity receive mode on a K3 which gives an added advantage.

73
Tom G3OLB