[TowerTalk] tower resonances

[Dan Zimmerman N3OX]

> Tuned it up and the first 2 Q's were with a YV5 and a ZS6, so I figured,
> guess it must work.  Although beings the first stations worked were DX, I
> figured it might not be optimum for close in work.  But what the heck, the
> sprint started and I used it anyway.  Was pleasantly surprised to find I
> could work NA stations with no problems.


So what?

I've got 103 countries worked on 160m with 100W into an antenna whose
optimistic gain is -6dBi.

25W ERP on 160m and I work all kinds of DX.  I have a lot of fun.

But some people don't have the criterion "I want to work stations"

Some people have the criterion, "I want 5dB more gain over my current
system"

It's absolutely true that *if you don't want to do a lot of engineering,*
you should just put something up and have fun and not worry too much about
how it works.  But once you've determined you need *more gain* or *more
receiving directivity* to improve your station, it makes sense to put in
some modeling and measuring work.  If you're satisfied with whatever antenna
you've got, that's great, but some people want to make a substantial
improvement over a single vertical or an inverted L, and to do that you need
to make sure your improvement is actually the improvement you expect it to
be.

Anyone who casually throws up a four square next to a tower without doing
any careful engineering work and gets a *measurable* gain increase
comparable to the theoretical one and who gets the right pattern should
probably start playing the lottery too.

That's different from putting up the four square and feeling really good
about it even though it didn't actually make you any louder.

A contest station's brand new fancy array that doesn't actually work right
could be replaced by a good pre-contest pep rally  with cheerleaders and
beer.  Not necessarily a bad idea, but it doesn't actually do a darn thing
for your signal.

73
Dan