[TowerTalk] Why horizontally polarized antennas?
jimlux
jimlux at earthlink.net
Fri Jul 2 17:12:02 PDT 2010
Kelly Johnson wrote:
> OK, let's ignore the fact that I said "horizontally polarized". My
> co-worker assumed my antenna is "horizontally polarized" because it is
> physically oriented that way. Regardless, I'm sure everyone
> understands his question.
>
> BTW - The reason he asked was because he had been told by a very well
> known and respected industry expert that verticals over water were the
> best radiators. I explained to him that yes, verticals over salt
> water are very good, but not many hams live over salt water so most of
> us use yagi's.
>
And that's exactly it... for low takeoff angles, a horizontally
polarized antenna is almost always better than a vertical of the same
physical size at the same height above ground.
WHen it comes to low bands, where building a full size antenna is
difficult, then other factors come into play. It's esier to build a 1/4
wave vertical for 80m than a 1/2 wave rotatable dipole (or pair of
switched dipoles).. and it's hard to get that dipole up in the air.
More information about the TowerTalk
mailing list