No matter what the ground conductivity is at a given hill top located antenna, what is shown in one ARRL Antenna Compendium piece on gains from an antenna near the edge of, and atop a hill, is that you are no longer shadowing say, a dipole parallel to the cliff face from radiating at angles below zero degrees. (Zero being parallel to the horizon, and any angle below horizon being called negative for this discussion.)
This signal, which is usually absorbed by nearby earth in the near field for conventional dipoles on flat ground, may have enough space to radiate quite a ways at a low or negative angle, then it might reflect in the Fresnel zone, (far field), or even just a few wavelengths from the hill. In any case, by the laws of wave reflection, angle of incidence equals angle of reflection, and thus the ground reflection will head for the ionosphere at a very favorable for DX, low angle of take off. Thus, the advantage of a horizontal antenna near the cliff edge on top of a hill. Stuart K5KVH _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
