Topband: 2 wire beverage question

[Grant Saviers]

Is there any performance difference between a two wire open wire 
bidirectional Beverage and the bidirectional coaxial cable design also 
in ON4UN's book?

Grant KZ1W


On 11/28/2012 7:49 AM, Tom W8JI wrote:
>> ON4UN states in his book that the wires for a 2 wire reversible 
>> beverage must be installed side by side, but also may be placed one 
>> above the other with satisfactory results.
>> Did someone try this? How satisfactory is satisfactory?
>
> There is no difference at all.
>
> If the feed system is right, and the line is properly constructed, it 
> would all work virtually the same. It does not matter if one wire is 
> above the other, or if they are side-by-side.
>
> Absolutely the best construction method would be a twisted or 
> transposed line, twisted or transposed at fractions of a wavelength, 
> but even using the best twisted or transposed installation it would be 
> difficult to tell from an untwisted line if the conductor was very 
> close spaced (a few inches or less).
>
> What does make a difference is the wire used, and how the line behaves 
> as a transmission line. I would not use telephone, insulated wire 
> twisted pair, or field phone wire, because they are very poor 
> transmission lines that are lossy and heavily affected by water.
>
> The wire layout of good line, however, is meaningless (except for 
> transposing or twisting which can help maintain balance).
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