Topband: Relocation to mountainous area

Sun Aug 20 14:03:02 EDT 2017

Hi Mark.  I wonder where specifically you're relocating to.  Three years 
ago I moved from Harnett County, NC, up here to Ashe county, near West 
Jefferson.  The soil here is not at all what I expected.  Except for 
mountain tops, just about everything else is what I've seen described as 
"clay loam".  It's about the same red color as you're clay soil, but is 
not as dense and has some other finely crushed rock material in it.  In 
valleys and pasture areas, it can be many feet deep and it's very moist 
compared to the soil in the Piedmont area.  We get more rain, and the 
partial cloud cover means it doesn't get baked dry and hard.  So, I 
suspect that the conductivity may be higher than you're expecting.  
Depending on where you'll be in the mountains, a bigger problem will be 
the proximity of mountains to the QTH.  I'm down in a hole here with 
4,300 to 5,000 foot peaks in most directions limiting the take-off angle.

I just finished installing a Hi-Z three vertical array and thunderstorm 
QRN has prevented testing it on 160 and 80, but results are good on 40 
meters.  I don't have a level spot on my 6 acres, so the array is on a 
hillside with one vertical 5 feet below the other two.  That may have 
some negative effect on the array, but it does seem to function as it 
should, at least on 40.

The arrangement of buildings and driveways here prevents me from 
erecting my old inverted L on 160, but my inverted vee dipole showed 
some promise late last season.

73, Floyd - K8AC

On 8/20/2017 12:00 PM, topband-request at contesting.com wrote:
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>     1. Relocation to mountainous area (Mark Lunday)
>     2. Re: Relocation to mountainous area (Bob Kupps)
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> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2017 02:48:20 +0000
> From: Mark Lunday <wd4elg at outlook.com>
> To: Topband <Topband at contesting.com>
> Subject: Topband: Relocation to mountainous area
> Message-ID:
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> My current QTH in the Piedmont of Central NC, although not ideal for propagation, has some advantages.  I have a 1.4 wave inverted L on 160 plus a HiZ four-square receiving array.  These have served me well.  Although I am not a big-gun, it is quiet here and I have had my share of DX in the past 7 years.  Soil is moist clay, terrain flat.
>
> I am preparing to relocate to the western part of NC.  Mountains (well, hills compared to Western USA).  I understand the importance of propagation and terrain, and I have been following Rich/KY6R and his adventures.  I have also looked at HFTA for more info.
>
> My question is this: the soil will be less conductive at my new QTH.  But what about the near field reflections and pseudo-brewster angle?  Sure, there's nothing I can do about that...just try to put down some radials to minimize near-field loss.  But what can I reasonably expect?  What have others experienced/attempted and achieved success with?  I am looking to save myself some time and frustration by avoiding those approaches which will produce less-than-optimum results.
>
> I am thinking elevated radials for the inverted L, due to poor soil conditions.  Should I run those at two per band if I want to use the inverted L as multi-band?  How should I orient them?  How do I prevent common-mode coming back through the remote coupler?
>
> Will the HiZ array be useful?  What if it's not located on perfectly flat terrain?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Mark Lunday, WD4ELG
> Greensboro, NC  FM06be
> wd4elg at arrl.net
> http://wd4elg.blogspot.com
> SKCC #16439  FISTS #17972
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2017 02:59:21 +0000 (UTC)
> From: Bob Kupps <n6bk at yahoo.com>
> To: Mark Lunday <wd4elg at outlook.com>, Topband <Topband at contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: Topband: Relocation to mountainous area
> Message-ID: <1556941296.1235503.1503197961612 at mail.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Hi Mark
> Put down as many non resonant ground or elevated radials as you can. You can do nothing about the far field pseudo Brewster angle. The Hi Z manual states the recommended deviation in element elevation but I suspect it will work OK. 73 ?GL
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
>   
>    On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 9:51, Mark Lunday<wd4elg at outlook.com> wrote:   My current QTH in the Piedmont of Central NC, although not ideal for propagation, has some advantages.? I have a 1.4 wave inverted L on 160 plus a HiZ four-square receiving array.? These have served me well.? Although I am not a big-gun, it is quiet here and I have had my share of DX in the past 7 years.? Soil is moist clay, terrain flat.
>
> I am preparing to relocate to the western part of NC.? Mountains (well, hills compared to Western USA).? I understand the importance of propagation and terrain, and I have been following Rich/KY6R and his adventures.? I have also looked at HFTA for more info.
>
> My question is this: the soil will be less conductive at my new QTH.? But what about the near field reflections and pseudo-brewster angle?? Sure, there's nothing I can do about that...just try to put down some radials to minimize near-field loss.? But what can I reasonably expect?? What have others experienced/attempted and achieved success with?? I am looking to save myself some time and frustration by avoiding those approaches which will produce less-than-optimum results.
>
> I am thinking elevated radials for the inverted L, due to poor soil conditions.? Should I run those at two per band if I want to use the inverted L as multi-band?? How should I orient them?? How do I prevent common-mode coming back through the remote coupler?
>
> Will the HiZ array be useful?? What if it's not located on perfectly flat terrain?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Mark Lunday, WD4ELG
> Greensboro, NC? FM06be
> wd4elg at arrl.net
> http://wd4elg.blogspot.com
> SKCC #16439? FISTS #17972
>
>
>
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