Topband: Non-resonant receive antennas

[Tom W8JI]

This is almost the way it worked here just at sunrise, both transmitting and 
receiving, except after sunrise the vertical hung in longest here. The brief 
and unpredictable window of horizontal superiority at this location is why I 
eventually just let the horizontal antennas all fall apart.

The pattern was true for both high (~300 ft) and low (less than 150 ft) 
dipoles. We would get beat all the time in 160 pileups using a high dipole 
in contests on the second station, so much that I just took that antenna out 
of the selections.

At this location, when the horizontal was good the verticals were still 
workable.  So the horizontals never really extended anything, they just were 
better. The exception was during solar storms, where sometimes the verticals 
were poor compared to the horizontals for extended periods.

73 Tom

> If the band was open before my local sunrise (not always the case!), the
> verticals would always outperform the dipole by a large amount.  However, 
> as
> soon as we hit sunrise, the dipole would suddenly start equaling and then
> outperforming the verticals.  The transition would take place in a matter 
> of
> a few short minutes.  Past sunrise, DX signals would drop into the noise 
> on
> the verticals but would continue to hang in on the dipole.  The dipole 
> would
> sometimes extend the opening for me by 5 to 15 minutes, allowing me to 
> make
> some contacts (mainly JA and VK, if the band was open in those directions)
> that would not have been possible with the vertical array.  Sometimes the 
> DX
> would be virtually inaudible on the verticals but Q5, although not strong,
> on the dipole.
>
> What is rather interesting, however, is that in the winter seasons of
> 2012-2013 and 2013-2014, this dipole advantage became non-existent.  The
> dipole was never even close to the verticals, either before or after
> sunrise.  It caused me to go outside a number of times to see if the 
> dipole
> had fallen down, but that was never the case.  Evidently the propagation
> mechanisms at work around sunrise have changed from a few years ago, at
> least at my QTH.  So far in the 2014-2015 season, the dipole has still not
> provided any receiving advantage around sunrise.
>
> I generally don't operate much around local sunset, but I have never seen
> any dipole advantage at sunset.
>
> 73, John W1FV
>
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