Topband: K9AY Loop Proximity to Structures

[N4ZR]

Thanks, all.

73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the new Reverse Beacon Network
web server at <http://beta.reversebeacon.net>.
For spots, please use your favorite
"retail" DX cluster.

On 1/24/2021 10:52 AM, Tim Shoppa wrote:
> Pete, I live in a residential neighborhood (not the most dense by any
> means), and all my receive antennas will point towards my house or a nearby
> neighbor's house.
>
> There are certainly buzzes and whines in parts of 160M that are accentuated
> in some directions on some RX antennas and not so much in other directions
> and other antennas. Presumably these are a wide spectrum of consumer
> electronic devices. But (other than my daughter's horrible RFI producing
> LED strip power supply which has been banished, replaced by a linear
> supply) I can't say any one direction or antenna is overall worse than any
> other direction.
>
> When I'm picking a run frequency I tend to stay away from the worst of the
> buzzes and whines. The buzzes and whines wander and turn on and off. So
> sometimes what was a good run frequency is not so good later in the night.
> After midnight I think folks turn off their TV's and computers and I can
> tell the buzzes and whines bother me less.
>
> If you are worried about the directivity of the K9AY being affected by
> nearby structures, you might carefully listen to stations in various
> directions and figure out where the nulls are for each loop/direction. The
> null on a K9AY loop is very pronounced (unlike the forward directionality
> which is very broad). I see no indication that my house (which is less than
> 40 feet away from the K9AY I use most often) and the neighborhood chain
> line fences (which are less than 30 feet away from the K9AY) affects the
> null direction.
>
> Tim N3QE
>
> On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 9:29 AM N4ZR <n4zr at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> When I put up my K9AY loop, it was convenient to do so at a location in
>> my back yard where I already had a stub of tubing (from a defunct
>> birdhouse) protruding above ground.  I didn't think about it before
>> this, but that puts the northeast lobe to Europe going through my house
>> at a distance of much less that 1/4 wavelength on 160. The house itself
>> is pretty RF-quiet, and the antenna seems to work (using it to select
>> one of two broadcast stations on the same frequency) but I'm wondering
>> if it would be worth the effort to move it to a location where it has a
>> clear shot to Europe
>>
>> --
>> 73, Pete N4ZR
>> Check out the new Reverse Beacon Network
>> web server at <http://beta.reversebeacon.net>.
>> For spots, please use your favorite
>> "retail" DX cluster.
>>
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