Topband: Soliciting suggestions on our receive antennas for 5X8C

[Bruce]

Hi Dave,

My first thought is an artificial noise floor from some device at your 
location. How much S meter difference between antenna off and antenna 
connected ?
 Do you have battery power for your transceiver available for a test ?

73,
Bruce-K1FZ




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave" <davek4sv at yahoo.com>
To: <topband at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2013 1:05 AM
Subject: Topband: Soliciting suggestions on our receive antennas for 5X8C


> Hi All,
>
> My team is currently on DXpedition to Uganda 5X8C
>
> We have erected receive antennas here in 5X with very poor success. W e 
> have used the same antennas at other places with great success.  Please 
> read below and if you can offer some constructive suggestions please reply 
> to me and copy reflector.  Davek4sv at yahoo.com
>
>
> 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.
>
> We are soliciting suggestions.  We only have a small amount of wire and 
> other antenna stuff, no Home Depot or Radio Shack around.  Perhaps we can 
> build a ground independent antenna that does not care what it sits on.
>
> We have or can source some wooden poles to make wire radiators.
>
> The 5X8C team thanks you in I
>
>
>
> Thank You in Advance,
>
> Dave Anderson, 5X/K4SV
>
> Sent from my iPad in Uganda
> _________________
> Topband Reflector
>