[TowerTalk] Questions on Antennas over sloping ground

[lstoskopf at cox.net]

Moxon in his excellent book, HF Antennas for all locations, talks extensively about antennas over sloping ground.  Sadly, years ago I attempted to visit with him through the RSGB but he was too late in life for them to want to forward the message.  I do agree with his ideas, but have some unanswered questions.

1.  He prefers to put the antenna down the slope (if there is enough slope left to make up the Fresnel zone) rather than at the lip.  It appears to me that reading his discussion that for low radiated angles the negative Fresnel zone near  limit he discusses does not exist.  At least for angles below maybe 30 degrees and who wants to go above there?

2.  He uses two heights:  the normally thought of height  and the height at a right angle from the slope.  So if you placed the antenna out over the slope you now have the height at a right angle from the slope plus the now much longer traditional height.  If you put  the latter in HFTA you get the antenna almost on the ground.  What height do I use in HFTA.

3.  I'm assuming that HFTA only uses radiation in free space out front as on a slope. With the close spacing to ground a lot of the energy heading toward the slope is going deep into the earth while the grazing energy down the slope looses less.

4.  A weird thought:  An antenna over flat ground basically sees (for losses) 180 degrees plus the angle to ground for each reflection point while one at the lip of a (say) 20 degree slope sees that much more sky (less ground loss).  Does that make a difference?

5.  Even more weird:  Is it possible to put a few tuned wires in the Fresnel zone near the ground to help with ground loss?

Thanks,  I know the sloping ground works.  Just want to optimize.

N0UU

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