Topband: BOG.

[K4SAV]

On 8/1/2019 4:12 PM, Edward via Topband wrote:
> I plan to lay down a BOG that is approx 600’. I realize the ideal 
> length for a 160 BOG is about 200’. But I also enjoy BCB DX so a 
> longer one will work better for that.

You may be surprised at what a 600 ft BOG will do.  I did some 
measurements comparing a 366 ft BOG to a 250 ft one.  The patterns were 
different but the signal to noise ratios and front to back were close 
enough that I couldn't measure a difference.  However since the patterns 
were different, that could change if a major noise source happened to be 
located in an area where the patterns were different.

An interesting observation was that the 366 ft BOG self terminated at 
about 4.5 MHz and the 250 ft BOG self terminated at about 5 MHz. That 
means that signals from the far end of the antenna will be so low as to 
not be noticed at the receive end.  The termination resistor doesn't 
matter in this case.  However these BOGs still worked pretty good past 
the point where they self terminated.   You do eventually reach a point 
where the shorter BOG is better.  Ground quality may also modify these 
numbers.

I was surprised to read that N6LF has been using a 450 ft BOG for 
years.  That info was learned from his article where he examined what 
happened when part of it got buried.

It should be an interesting experiment to see how your 600 footer works.

Jerry, K4SAV