[UK-CONTEST] BEVERAGE QUESTION

[Roger Parsons]

I agree with Chris - small variations don't make any noticeable difference. 

One of the advantages of living in the frozen wastes of Northern Ontario is that I have plenty of space for Beverages and have 12 of them at 30 degree intervals. None of them is quite straight - they all go from tree to tree - perhaps 3m variations. None of them is remotely straight in a vertical plane as there are lots of big rocks around here. Some of them go over swamps (well frozen ones at this time of year), some over pure rock, some through the woods, some go high over valleys. They all work just the same - I can detect no difference between them - well depending on where the signal is coming from excluded! They even continue to work when they are buried in snow.

(The reasons that I have 12 are: (1) I had the space (borrowed from Her Majesty's Northern Ontario Bush) so why not; (2) I wanted redundancy as I can't get near them at this time of year; (3) I couldn't find an 8 position switch at any reasonable price!)

In England I had a Beverage at ground level running along a hedge and that worked well apart from a low signal level.

In short, I believe that Beverages are very non-critical antennas and will work (on 160m at least) in almost any configuration. The only exception that I and others have found is that a significant dog-leg (eg >15m) does spoil performance.

73 Roger
VE3ZI

> 
> At 16:03 16/02/2009, Don Beattie wrote:
> > In short, how straight does a Beverage need to be ?
> .....  For example if I put up a 200m long beverage with a
> kink from side to side of up to, say, 1 metre, would that be
> a reasonable antenna ?
> 
> Don,
> 
> Over the years there have been many discussions on the
> topband reflector about beverages in run straight lines,
> zig-zagged, over uneven ground, up hills, across valleys
> etc.  And the received wisdom is that with the small
> deviations you are suggesting it will  make very little
> difference .
> 
> I think the only real impact were if you were building
> phasing two staggered beverages - which will go like stink
> BTW - then consistent spacing is important along the length.
>  Your soil conductivity will probably have more effect than
> a 1m deviation.
> 
> I don't think EZNEC models beverages very well.
> 
> So go for it - or buy a chain saw ....
> 
> 73 Chris, G3SVL
> 
>