Topband: Soliciting suggestions on our receive antennas for 5X8C

[Brad Rehm]

> We are experiencing some weird problems with our receive antennas.  We have a beverage about 540 feet long, terminated properly about 5 to 6 feet over the ground.  I have built plenty of these at my house, they all work.  This one here does not.  It hears noise but no signals.  Once In a while you can hears signals.
>
> So put you're receive antenna hat on.  We suspect the ground is the problem.  We are located on the shore of Victoria Lake at a resort.  The soil appears to be sandy but with fresh water lake nearby. 200 feet.  The beverage is in the clear away from large metal objects.
>
> With a 510 ohm termination we measure about 235 ohms when looking across the termination resistor.  Using resistor theory essentially we have two resistances in parallel.  The wire , termination transformer, ground rods and ground are about 500 ohms.  Having not measured this at home I'm not sure if this is too low or too high of resistance.
>
> We erected a Flag 29x14 feet mounted just above the ground.  This is purported to be ground independent.  Our tests last night indicate this antenna is not hearing very well either.

> Dave Anderson, 5X/K4SV

Dave,

Which bands are you listening on?  It's possible you'll find that the
antennas perform better on 40m or 30m than on 160m or 80m because of
your latitude, which is near zero.  I understand there is a zone near
the equator in which lower-frequency signals do not propagate well.
My own experience on a road trip from southern to northern West
Australia a few years ago demonstrated the effect.  40 meter prop all
but fell away as we entered the northern territories.

Brad
KV5V