Topband: HiZ Install Small Lot

[Chortek, Robert L]

Hi Joe,

I don't have any advice.  Only some words of encouragement regarding compromise installations, and that they can yield a substantial improvement.  

I live on a small city lot,  no more than a quarter acre.  I have tried a dozen receive antennas (K9AY, EWEs, coaxial loops, low dipoles, etc.) over the years looking to improve the all-important signal to noise ratio. Nothing gave a meaningful improvement.  Along came the 3 Element Array, so I thought I'd give one a try.  Everything about my situation is a compromise. I can't get a 40 foot triangle with equal sides (nor will a 50 foot triangle fit on my lot), one of the elements is 3 feet lower than the other two, the corner of the house blocks the  line of sight between two of the elements, two of the elements are near a metal fence and one of the elements is within 50 feet of my vertical. Not a pretty picture.  Still, the system is highly directive on 160 meters where I spend most of my time.  It provides a very good improvement in signal to noise ratio over my vertical and has truly uncovered another layer of signals for me.  I have worked a number of stations on 160 I could not hear with my BOG or my vertical.  It works better than my 275 BOG most of the time.   It REALLY does work, even with all the compromises in my situation.  I am amazed at its performance and am VERY happy with the decision to install one.

I run the legal limit with no harm to the array - a great feature.  I am very pleased with this array - and it works great all the way up to 12 meters, to boot!.

Good luck. Do the best you can, and don't worry about the compromises over which you have no control (I don't consider moving a viable option).

73,

Bob/AA6VB

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of joe
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 3:38 PM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Topband: HiZ Install Small Lot

Hi Guys,

I will be installing my new Hi-Z 2-3 RX antenna this coming weekend.  I live on a small quarter acre lot in Maryland so I expect a few challenges and compromises.  I would like to hear from other small lot Hi-Z owners so I may be able to avoid or workaround any issues and manage my expectations.

I will be using 3 home brewed 15 foot verticals made out of 5 foot telescoping sections of sched 40 pvc pipe.  (1.25 -> 1 -> .75) These will be painted and mounted to a six foot cedar privacy fence and the wire will continue down the fence 3 more feet providing me with 18 foot total length for each of the verticals. 

My transmit antenna will be very close to one of the verticals and within 50-100 feet of the other two. I know in advance this will be an issue.  I'm looking for ideas to detune it while in RX.

I am hoping this antenna will offer much better performance than my short BOG.  

Any helpful advice would be welcome.

Thanks, 

Joe
KB3KJS

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