Topband: BOG height

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

Hi Mike, et al.

I have personal acquaintance and knowledge of a number of hams who have put
down a BOG that was anything but straight. Some with 90 degree bends,
another shaped like a Z, and less extreme bends. The end of those small
lot, weird property situational BOG attempts, is that a few didn't do much,
maybe nothing. But some significantly improved signal ratio of incoming
desired 160m signal to local noise. This appears to invoke a degree of
something clearly seen on straight BOGS where local noise from broadside
the BOG is reduced significantly. Theoretically some could object that
20-25 dB side rejection is reduced by a bend, and it surely IS reduced.
HOWEVER...

... And a big however, even if only 4-6 dB of the reduction remains, a
general reduction of 4 dB noise on a given 160 signal will make a big
difference in results, in who he hears and hears not. Theoretical thought
and practical thought sometimes give one different answers to "To Do or not
to Do, that is the question". Theoretical should serve the practical, not
the other way around.

Sometimes our beloved reflector mob is inclined to entirely dismiss
anecdotal material from the field, dismiss anything that was not derived
from a controlled lab-style experiment. The lab-style experiment is good to
establish behaviors as fact, principles to use. BUT the anecdotal tells us
how it plays in the real world, where the lab experiment derived
implementation rules are often simply not possible.

In the end, one needs to understand the factors that bear upon performance,
AND understand them WELL, but then just go try stuff out, even if some
aspects of the lab version have to be bent or ignored. Try things.
Personally I will take 4-6 dB improvement on hearing Europe, and it will
show up in my contest scores.

73, Guy K2AV

On Sun, Aug 4, 2019 at 1:59 PM Mike Waters <mikewate at gmail.com> wrote:

> Based on questions I've received over the years from hams who found my
> Beverage antenna page, there is an an additional problem.
>
> Some hams just do not grasp that:
> (1) Beverages are directional, like a Yagi is.
> (2) A Beverage has to be reasonably straight. Dozens of folks want to put
> it over an existing fence, where it winds up being an L or U shape.
>
> 73, Mike
> www.w0btu.com
>
> On Sun, Aug 4, 2019, 12:34 PM FZ Bruce <k1fz at twc.com> wrote:
>
> > ...
> > The problem with the BOG is not the antenna, but new users who try to
> > use above ground Beverage information to make it work..
> >
> _________________
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