I don't know why you guys are so "anal" about this.
An 8 element beam off 5 degrees will have a signal degredation of <0.15dB.
I'm sure most of you have at least that much connector loss.
Even off 10 degrees will only result in a "loss" of 0.5dB.
Your 4 element Cushcraft has < 0.3dB "loss" at 10 degrees.
And even a 40 element 432 beam has < 0.8dB "loss" at 5 degrees.
And by the way, vertical stacking does nothing to your beamwidth.
How often have you been working Europe when a ZS calls you and you hear him?
How about working JA and you still hear VK/ZL? Happens all the time!!
5 degrees isn't going to kill your HF signal.
Bill hit it on the head when he said:
>I think going to a pilot shop, looking at a chart and finding the nearest
>isogonic line and then correcting your magnetic compass for magnetic
>variation is probably the simpliest and most accurate.
Maybe not the most accurate, but certainly the clear winner in the
Ease versus Accuracy department.
I'm so glad I live near the agonic line (0 variation).
Have a nice day,
---
Chad Kurszewski, WE9V e-mail: Chad_Kurszewski@csg.mot.com
The Official "Sultans of Shwing" Web Site: http://www.QTH.com/sos
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: K7LXC@contesting.com
Sponsored by Akorn Access, Inc & KM9P
|