Topband: More anecdotal "stories" to cause one to stop and....

[Joshua M. Arritt]

On 9/9/2013 10:33 AM, James Rodenkirch wrote:
> Listening to a fella on 80 SSB this morning about his experiences with a vertical 1/4 wave and a horizontal loop on Top Band.
> He said he had both up and used them over a 20+ year period and noticed that one would work better than the other for DX.  For five years or so the loop would outperform, for a couple of years the two would be equal and then for about five years the vertical would do better.
> One can easily point to the 12 year period as aligned with the Solar Cyclef BUT -- when I look at the radiation patterns for both I see the loop as a hugely efficient NVIS antenna with little low angle radiation.  Sooooo, I think there are some magnetic anomalies at play here but -- if the radiation angles don't change, how does one work "mo betta" than the other?
>

Given the time span involved, one could also easily point to 
deteriorating antenna and feedline conditions in that instance, 
too.....  "local" magnetic anomalies.

Terribly tough to control that experiment data.

73,
- Josh / KF4YLM (operating a wretchedly deteriorated 5-year-old Topband 
antenna at the moment....)