Hi Pete et al..
I wasn't "getting at you" specifically..:-)
Of course there's no single solution to suit every need, and antennas is one
area that most ops can indulge in a little experimentation here and there.
I am fortunate to live close to the ocean, and we do get twice the average
UK rainfall here as well.
The back yard is usually quite damp, even in summer after no rain for
several weeks.
Digging down 10 inches or so will reveal damp earth.. or it did last year
when we had roughly 6 weeks with no rain whatsoever and daytime temperatures
in the 90's.
Getting back to loops, with apologies for the TT list hijacking, I wonder
how and where you are all feeding / did feed your loops?
Co-ax, balanced feeder, impedance of feeder, location of feedpoint?
Need for balun / RF choke etc?
Shape of loop?
Any good web sites or references? ( I have read lots of LB Cebik W4RNL's
material )
Should you wish to mail off list to spare peoples' inboxes, a valid email
address for me is
gw7lhiAThotmail.com obviously, replace AT with @ OK!
An interesting discussion, even if not strictly TT oriented.
Paul MW0CDO.
----- Original Message -----
From: <ac5e@comcast.net>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 12:40 AM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] 80 meter loops
> Well, Paul, I'm not knocking the horizontal loop. For what it's good for,
vertical radiation on the fundamental and high angle radiation with both
pronounced lobes and equally pronounced nulls on the harmonics, it's quite a
good antenna.
>
> Your comments essentially parallel my own observations - but!
>
> As the late Harry Wiggs once remarked "DX is the ones you don't have
confirmed." I have the easy ones confirmed - and many of the harder ones as
well.
>
> But down here where a signal must overpass hundreds or thousands of miles
of very non-reflecting land before it gets to anything resembling a good
reflecting surface we usually need the lowest angle of radiation we can
obtain. A dipole has enough low angle radiation to give one a chance at the
DX. Even the rare DX when conditions are just right. So does a vertical
loop. Or just a vertical. Especially a vertical with a decent radial field.
>
> Or, hung high enough, a horizontal loop will manage some lower angle
radiation; and, when conditions are just right, you can get enough
sidescatter to do a respectable job with a comparitively low horizontal
loop.
>
> But at normal heights and under normal conditions a horizontal loop puts
its first hop out just a few hundred miles, and the angle of reflection is
such that the second hop gets weak indeed. If I were working the (U.S. State
of) Georgia QSO Party a horizontal loop would be hard to beat. But all of
Georgia is within 500 miles or so of this location.
>
> A friend of mine with a horizontal loop and a tri-bander was quite
frustrated at his results on the Oklahoma QSO Party. The loop was too short
and the tribander was too long for decent results. So he worked Arkansas
stations on the loop and Colorado on the tribander. And that was not what he
wanted to do.
>
> Antennas are the Amateur Radio Operator's working tools. If the results
you get with any antenna suit you, they sure satisfy me. But one size shirt
does not fit all men - and one antenna does not suit all occasions and
conditions. If one did - everyone would be using it exclusively!
>
> 73 Pete Allen AC5E
>
>
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