Topband: Some experiments with a short beverage, not succeeding very well

Tue Jun 30 17:53:53 EDT 2020

Hi John, 

250 feet isn't a short Beverage on 80 meters, it should perform 
superbly. In my -- now long ago -- professional life we built and 
operated phased arrays of up to 64 Beverages all the way up to 
30 MHz, feeding SDRs, and they worked superbly. 

73 
Frank 
W3LPL 

----- Original Message -----

From: "John Harden, D.M.D." <jhdmd at bellsouth.net> 
To: topband at contesting.com 
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2020 8:05:56 PM 
Subject: Re: Topband: Some experiments with a short beverage, not succeeding very well 

I have never had any luck with short beverages, EWE's, FLAGS, low 
dipoles, etc. Total waste of time. 

In 2010 I went to the Hi-Z 3, then the Hi-Z 4, and finally the Hi-Z 8. I 
hear stuff I have never heard before.. 

Since then I added a Waller FLAG on a 34 ft boom at 95 feet... 

Best moves I ever made.. 

73, 

John, W4NU 

On 6/30/2020 3:04 PM, Brad Rehm wrote: 
> Mark, 
> 
> I didn't see any mention of a preamp. Signals from a good Beverage are 
> typically 20-30 dB below what you'd hear from a dipole or a vertical. 
> Everything else you've done looks good. Keep it up! 
> 
> 73, 
> Brad KV5V 
> Salado, Texas 
> 
> On Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 1:57 PM Mark Lunday <wd4elg at outlook.com> wrote: 
> 
>> "Beverages just want to work" is what I have heard. 
>> 
>> Not having much luck with that here. I suspect operator/installation 
>> error. 
>> 
>> I did a lot of reading and I must be doing something wrong. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> * 250 feet of insulated wire strung out in 030 degrees direction 
>> toward EU, pretty straight, varying in height from 4 to 6 feet, running 
>> through thick brush with no metal objects or artificial elements along the 
>> run. 
>> * 9:1 transformer at feed point with ground rod 
>> * 300 feet of coax, mix of RG-8, MMR-400 to get to the edge of the 
>> woods from the house 
>> * No terminating resistor 
>> 
>> On bands 160-40, the signals are very weak. I am monitoring WSPR, FT8. I 
>> can hear signals on 160-40 but they are way down compared to dipoles and 
>> inverted L on the same bands. Like 20-30 db down. From what I read, I 
>> should NOT need an HF pre-amplifier, right? 
>> 
>> Signals on 30 and 20 seem to be better and I can copy some DX from EU on 
>> FT8. 
>> 
>> I will try installing a new ground rod, the old one is 10 years old and 
>> perhaps not making a good ground connection at the feedpoint. The 
>> transformer is brand new, so that's not an issue. The coax has tested out 
>> fine. Soil is central North Carolina clay, a bit dry at this time. 
>> 
>> I am guessing performance is poor on 160-40 because of the short length 
>> and that it's bi-directional (no terminating resistor), which I am seeing 
>> on 30 meters. But I did not think it would be THIS bad on 160-40.... 
>> 
>> Mark Lunday, WD4ELG 
>> Greensboro, NC FM06be 
>> wd4elg at arrl.net<mailto:wd4elg at arrl.net> 
>> http://wd4elg.blogspot.com 
>> SKCC #16439 FISTS #17972 QRP ARCI #16497 
>> 
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