[Towertalk] 40m beams

[Pete Smith]

At 06:11 PM 4/7/02 +0000, Barry Kirkwood wrote:
>...I have F12 C-4SXL and am happy but not ecstatic about performance on 40, in
>contrast to other bands where it exceeds my expectations.
>Sometimes wonder if the 40m reflector is worth the trouble and would be
>interested to hear from anyone who has moved from single element to two
>element combination ( or vice versa)
I made this transition, and I think Barry has a valid point.  Certainly, 
the jump to a rotary dipole made a big difference in my ability to put a 
signal where I wanted, and the front-to-back ratio of my EF-240S 
(essentially the same as the 40 meter section of the C-4SXL) is not 
impressive.  The difficulty of properly adjusting the elements may be a big 
part of this -- both dipoles are exactly the same, so adjustment is everything.

The 40-2CD is a little bigger antenna -- I wonder how Force 12's EF-240X 
would compare, since it is usefully larger than the EF-340S.  Even more to 
the point might be comparing to the new Force 12 N-yagis, which use 
elements that are 85 percent of full size, with fixed linear loading that 
extends outward from the gap rather than inward.

A final point -- my EF-240S suddenly started working much better when I 
replaced my top guy set with Phillystran, even though I could see no SWR 
effects or other interaction symptoms before.

73, Pete N4ZR

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