[TowerTalk] Beverage Antenna

Fri Jan 30 17:25:32 EST 2015

what i did to elevate my beverage was to put fence posts every 50 ft or 
so and slip a 10 ft piece of pvc over it. I had a deep notch cut in the 
top and ran electric fence wire over it... keep the cows out of it... my 
2 cents, Cort K4WI

> Doug Turnbull <mailto:turnbull at net1.ie>
> Friday, January 30, 2015 2:28 PM
> Hans,
> In my case the Beverages were supported by fence posts every fifty feet.
> The antennas were kept up for the TB season. My lengths were more than
> one wave length approximately 880 feet in one direction and over 1000 feet
> in another. I have tried both bi and uni-directional Beverages. Both work
> fine. The ends tapered over about 23/30 feet from a four foot level to a
> ground rod at each end. I used transformers from DX Engineering for the
> uni-directional and from Radio Spares of New Hampshire for the
> bi-directional antennas. Beverages work but I needed to use neighbours
> fields and it just became too problematic.
>
> The only reason I can think of putting a Beverage eight to ten feet in
> the air is livestock and wildlife. It is harder to raise the antenna up.
> Fence posts are very convenient with insulators for electric fences. You
> can also obtain three foot insulated posts designed for electric fencing.
> I have not tried these but they should work.
>
> The Hi-Z four square and eight circle fit on my own land though I want
> to move them further away as mentioned.
>
> I note Array Solutions has another loop type antenna for receive and
> would like to see comparisons between its varieties and K9AY, Beverages,
> four square and circle eight. There are Beverages topping 1400 feet used
> by K5RX and others which no doubt are even more desirable; there is 
> much to
> be said for living in Texas.
>
> This is not a easy subject. It is not cut and dry and things are
> changing. Beverages seem to be the standard but it will depend on the
> Beverage. Circle eight people are saying they have done away with Beverage
> farms. Be wary of snake oil. As I say there is so much to learn from
> others and the ultimate truth is hard to find.
>
> Now maybe some others can shed some real light on the subject.
>
> 73 Doug EI2CN
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of 
> Earl
> Morse
> Sent: 30 January 2015 18:03
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Beverage Antenna
>
>
> Hans,
>
> My experience with the Beverage is limited but that probably puts me ahead
> of about 99% of the ham population who have never built one.
>
> I built a set of NE/NW one wavelength Beverages for XA5T when we used to
> contest there. These were single support antennas anchored by a ground rod
> at the feed point and another at the termination. The wire was aluminum
> electric fence wire (17 gauge Fido Shock) because it was cheap and didn't
> have to be durable since we laid the antenna out before the contest and
> rolled them back up after the contest to use again the next year. The
> hardest part was hacking through the brush and cactus to get them 
> strung up.
> I used a fiber glass support (3 sections of military camoflage net 
> support)
> for the center post. The ground rods at the termination and feed point
> provided the end anchors.
>
> Performance was good. I used a single balun and fed both antennas at the
> same point, allowing me to switch between them with only one run of coax
> back to the shack. They were directive and it was easy to switch 
> between NE
> and NW making the W1s go away and the W7s pop up. With this 
> directivity and
> the supposed cardioid pattern I believe the big advantage was 
> increased S/N
> by eliminating noise in one direction while maintaining signal from the
> desired direction. They were one wavelength on 160M but we used them with
> success on 80 and 40 as well.
>
> Once you get the initial antenna up, whether it be a wavelength of wire
> laying on the ground or a single support model like I built, you will have
> to more than double your efforts to get a readily noticeable 
> improvement in
> the performance of the antenna. You might just want to try the simplest
> design and see how it works before improving on it with enhanced
> terminations, multiwires, and beefed up ground systems.
>
> Earl
> N8SS
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:15:36 -0500
> From: Hans Hammarquist via TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Beverage Antenna
> Message-ID: <8D20A62EA8E9BAC-F9C-ADD7 at webmail-vm060.sysops.aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hi Fellow Towertalkers,
>
> I'm considering putting "up" a Beverage antenna and have some questions
> regarding what I can do and not do to get it work good. I looked in to it
> and find the two-wire version being worthwhile.
>
> How important is it that the two wires are side-by-side. Can one be on top
> of the other? The installation will be a lot easier if one can be on 
> top of
> the other.
>
> Do the wires have to be absolutely parallel?
>
> Do the wires have to be on a straight line or do they have constant height
> above ground? The area I planning to put the antenna is not even but 
> rather
> hilly.
>
> Do the antenna have to be in a clear area or can it be surrounded by 
> trees?
> How close can the trees be? Can I, maybe, use trees as support? I really
> don't want to cut too much trees to put this thing up.
>
> What type of ground do I have to install in the far end? I guess a 
> grounding
> rod is not enough.
>
> Is there some phasing device available to make a steerable antenna by 
> using
> two or three Beverage antennae together.? I think I saw or heard about
> something about this but don't remember.
>
> Best 73 de,
>
> Hans - N2JFS
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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> Earl Morse <mailto:kz8e at wt.net>
> Friday, January 30, 2015 12:03 PM
> Hans,
>
> My experience with the Beverage is limited but that probably puts me 
> ahead of about 99% of the ham population who have never built one.
>
> I built a set of NE/NW one wavelength Beverages for XA5T when we used 
> to contest there. These were single support antennas anchored by a 
> ground rod at the feed point and another at the termination. The wire 
> was aluminum electric fence wire (17 gauge Fido Shock) because it was 
> cheap and didn't have to be durable since we laid the antenna out 
> before the contest and rolled them back up after the contest to use 
> again the next year. The hardest part was hacking through the brush 
> and cactus to get them strung up. I used a fiber glass support (3 
> sections of military camoflage net support) for the center post. The 
> ground rods at the termination and feed point provided the end anchors.
>
> Performance was good. I used a single balun and fed both antennas at 
> the same point, allowing me to switch between them with only one run 
> of coax back to the shack. They were directive and it was easy to 
> switch between NE and NW making the W1s go away and the W7s pop up. 
> With this directivity and the supposed cardioid pattern I believe the 
> big advantage was increased S/N by eliminating noise in one direction 
> while maintaining signal from the desired direction. They were one 
> wavelength on 160M but we used them with success on 80 and 40 as well.
>
> Once you get the initial antenna up, whether it be a wavelength of 
> wire laying on the ground or a single support model like I built, you 
> will have to more than double your efforts to get a readily noticeable 
> improvement in the performance of the antenna. You might just want to 
> try the simplest design and see how it works before improving on it 
> with enhanced terminations, multiwires, and beefed up ground systems.
>
> Earl
> N8SS
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:15:36 -0500
> From: Hans Hammarquist via TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Beverage Antenna
> Message-ID: <8D20A62EA8E9BAC-F9C-ADD7 at webmail-vm060.sysops.aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hi Fellow Towertalkers,
>
> I'm considering putting "up" a Beverage antenna and have some 
> questions regarding what I can do and not do to get it work good. I 
> looked in to it and find the two-wire version being worthwhile.
>
> How important is it that the two wires are side-by-side. Can one be on 
> top of the other? The installation will be a lot easier if one can be 
> on top of the other.
>
> Do the wires have to be absolutely parallel?
>
> Do the wires have to be on a straight line or do they have constant 
> height above ground? The area I planning to put the antenna is not 
> even but rather hilly.
>
> Do the antenna have to be in a clear area or can it be surrounded by 
> trees? How close can the trees be? Can I, maybe, use trees as support? 
> I really don't want to cut too much trees to put this thing up.
>
> What type of ground do I have to install in the far end? I guess a 
> grounding rod is not enough.
>
> Is there some phasing device available to make a steerable antenna by 
> using two or three Beverage antennae together.? I think I saw or heard 
> about something about this but don't remember.
>
> Best 73 de,
>
> Hans - N2JFS
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>