Topband
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Topband: K9AY Loop Proximity to Structures

To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: K9AY Loop Proximity to Structures
From: N4ZR <n4zr@comcast.net>
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2021 11:41:16 -0500
List-post: <mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Thanks, all.

73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the new Reverse Beacon Network
web server at <http://beta.reversebeacon.net>.
For spots, please use your favorite
"retail" DX cluster.

On 1/24/2021 10:52 AM, Tim Shoppa wrote:
Pete, I live in a residential neighborhood (not the most dense by any
means), and all my receive antennas will point towards my house or a nearby
neighbor's house.

There are certainly buzzes and whines in parts of 160M that are accentuated
in some directions on some RX antennas and not so much in other directions
and other antennas. Presumably these are a wide spectrum of consumer
electronic devices. But (other than my daughter's horrible RFI producing
LED strip power supply which has been banished, replaced by a linear
supply) I can't say any one direction or antenna is overall worse than any
other direction.

When I'm picking a run frequency I tend to stay away from the worst of the
buzzes and whines. The buzzes and whines wander and turn on and off. So
sometimes what was a good run frequency is not so good later in the night.
After midnight I think folks turn off their TV's and computers and I can
tell the buzzes and whines bother me less.

If you are worried about the directivity of the K9AY being affected by
nearby structures, you might carefully listen to stations in various
directions and figure out where the nulls are for each loop/direction. The
null on a K9AY loop is very pronounced (unlike the forward directionality
which is very broad). I see no indication that my house (which is less than
40 feet away from the K9AY I use most often) and the neighborhood chain
line fences (which are less than 30 feet away from the K9AY) affects the
null direction.

Tim N3QE

On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 9:29 AM N4ZR <n4zr@comcast.net> wrote:

When I put up my K9AY loop, it was convenient to do so at a location in
my back yard where I already had a stub of tubing (from a defunct
birdhouse) protruding above ground.  I didn't think about it before
this, but that puts the northeast lobe to Europe going through my house
at a distance of much less that 1/4 wavelength on 160. The house itself
is pretty RF-quiet, and the antenna seems to work (using it to select
one of two broadcast stations on the same frequency) but I'm wondering
if it would be worth the effort to move it to a location where it has a
clear shot to Europe

--
73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the new Reverse Beacon Network
web server at <http://beta.reversebeacon.net>.
For spots, please use your favorite
"retail" DX cluster.

_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband
Reflector

_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>