[TowerTalk] Re: antennas and trees.

[Robert Shohet]

John,

The statement "the antennas I have in trees work just fine" has
no meaning.  Fine compared to what?

I have MANY antennas in the trees.  I want to find out how
compromised they might be where they are now.
Why?  So I can figure out whether or not I should spend many
hours moving them, or spend time and money cutting down
trees around them to possibly improve performance, or not.

If they are not compromised where they are now, then it does
not make much sense to invest time and money to cut down
trees and move antennas, does it?  So how would I know?
Does guessing make any sense?  Of course not.

Yes there are many variables, that is why it is important to
ask the questions and possibly get meaningful answers, not
give up.

My yagis worked fine too, until I spent a lot of time computer
modeling them over my terrain.  I found better configurations
which provided more wave angle coverage and better stacking
patterns and gain.  They worked fine before.
Fortunately I did not rely on the "they work fine" concept of
antenna design.  I knew they could work better and
as a result of my modeling and hard work, my yagis work much better now!

In my experience, it rarely hurts to ask the questions.  But it ALWAYS
hurts to assume and remain in "the dark".

Even if the actual situation can't be modeled, that doesn't mean that
useful information can't be obtained to help make decisions on what to
do, or whether or not to bother doing something else.  What is NOT
helpful is for someone to say "they work fine", as if that should
be the final answer on the subject.

If someone wants to be guided by "they work fine" as a goal for antenna
performance, more power to them.  For me that is not enough.

73
Bob KQ2M


>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^
> It's actually  realistic, not fatalistic
>
> There's way too many variables to make sense of:
>
> Types of trees
> Size of trees
> Number of trees
> Geometry of trees
> Moisture of trees
> Time of year
> etc etc etc...
>
> ...to actually model something that would be useful (in your or my
lifetime, anyway).
>
> In this case one could doodle ones self to death on paper, with the
liklihood of
> not coming up with any useful analytical model,  or break out the
slingshot
> and wire, and get on the air.
>
> My anecdotal observations are, the antennas I have in the trees work just
fine.
>
> My scientific, measureable observations, are that the antennas I have in
the woods
> work 100% better than the antennas that exist only on my notepad.
>
> 73
>
> John K5MO