Topband: Rig Question

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

On Thu, Jun 19, 2014 at 1:30 PM, Carl <km1h at jeremy.mv.com> wrote:
>>
>> How many rigs have true diversity receive?  One?  Does it help? It sure does.
> ** For the handful that have the real estate to implement it properly.

Though I can see what you are getting at in your other points, I
really don't agree with this one.

160 1/4 wave verticals with proper radial systems require real estate.
But anyone who has gotten up some variety of L over an FCP in their
cramped space can do quite remarkable diversity by adding a K3 with
subRX plus a loop antenna or any of the small solutions like pennant,
K9AY, or even a single insulated wire of quite miscellaneous shape
notched into the grass as a ground low velocity factor (GLVF) RX
antenna. A BOG is a GLVF antenna. GLVF's have a useful quality of
reducing reception of noise sources in the area that are close to the
ground, like your neighbor's house. Being low velocity factor due to
next to/in the ground, sizes to accomplish resonance effects are
smaller.

My favorite K3+subRX diversity ant setup is an RX antenna to NE on one
ear and an RX antenna to W/NW on the other ear. This spreads the world
of RF between my aural peripheral vision, and my brain separates any
discrete signal from the wrap-around noise mush I am usually listening
to on 160.

But what does surprisingly, non-intuitively better than single RX on
TX antenna, is whatever single RX antenna one can manage on subRX, and
the transmit antenna on main RX. The brain will interpret CW and a lot
of SSB as a single point source audio, and will either spread around
the noise, or assign it a different point source on the mental audio
horizon.

So no, you do *not* need extended real estate to do diversity with a
K3, just some outside-the-box thinking.  There is a whole lot about
the usual 160m talk that needs some outside-the-box thinking.

73, Guy K2AV