Topband: Parasitic Elements with 160m Verticals (was radals fer 160m vertcal)

[Jon Zaimes AA1K]

 >>Have Topbanders used parasitic elements?

Yes, there are several parasitic arrays in use on the band.

Mine started out in 1998 as a "K3LR" array (described in ON4UN's "Low 
band antennas" book) with a central tower as the driven element and four 
sloping t-shaped parasitic wire elements giving three elements in each 
of four directions. Two of the elements in line are used as a director 
or reflector and the other two left floating. I later added a loaded 
90-ft tower as a second director element toward Europe (4 elements total 
to Europe). Each of the original 5 elements has 120 1/4 wave radials 
laid on the ground (now mostly invisible, sunk in slightly) -- shorter 
where they intersect at a midpoint and are bonded to adjacent radials.. 
Some more details at www.aa1k.us under "160 TX array."

KC1XX has one at his contest super station, described here: 
http://www.kc1xx.com/antennas/160_array.pdf

K0HA has one that has proven quite effective from his Nebraska QTH: 
http://k0ha.com/160m/160m.html.

My first recollection of the sloping reflector idea was in an article 
VE2CV wrote in the Sept. 1984 QST.

4X4NJ (now K7NJ) used parasitic elements on a loaded tower to produce a 
consistently big signal, described in a Feb. 1985 QST article.

K4ERO's article on sloping reflectors appeared in the ARRL Antenna 
Compendium Vol. 4.

N6LF covers them in an article in the March/April 2003 issue of NCJ, 
available here: 
http://rudys.typepad.com/ant/files/antenna_array_single_support.pdf. 
There's a good list of additional references at the end of that article.

73/Jon AA1K