It's refreshing to read something based on science! All of the anecdotes are interesting, but nothing more. I would not jump on any of them without reading scientific documentation comparing them directly to a half-wave, flat top dipole at a half wavelength high, or as high as possible and specified. Jim's point about the NVIS myth is well taken. Most of the "literature" is bunk and with little to no backing in science.
I strongly promote using WSPRLite on two antennas simultaneously to demonstrate the new antenna's performance over time. Those results have meaning. I worked an Italian station on 20m SSB using my KX3 at five Watts into a mobile screwdriver antenna. that was in 2016 near the second peak of Cycle 24. Based on how others assert "This antenna works." I should pull my dipoles down (283 DXCC entities from NM, mostly during Cycle 24) and just use the mobile antenna. Right! BTW, my friend Alan, K0BG, calls "WORKs" an acronym for "WithOut Real Knowledge." He is probably right 80-95% of the time about that. So it worked, but that doesn't make it good, better, or even worse. Ward Silver, N0AX, wrote: "The best antenna is one that is in the air." Kevin is trying to erect an antenna better than what he has now. Anecdotes won't help him, IMHO. 73, Bill, K8TE > A low horizontal antenna has its place, for local work especially out to > a few hundred miles reliably. Horses for courses and all that. That's an urban myth. A low horizontal antenna is very lossy, and has much weaker radiation at ALL angles, including high ones. The origin of the myth is that ARRL Antenna plots set the peak radiation to 0dB. But when plot the vertical field strength for all heights on the same scale, you get the family of curves beginning with slide 13. Study http://k9yc.com/VertOrHorizontal-Slides.pdf There is an optimum range of heights for high angle radiation, and it isn't low. Slide 19 shows that the optimum height is about 55 ft on 80M, and high angle drop by only 2 dB at 90 ft. Divide those heights by 2 for 40M. 73, Jim K9YC -- Sent from: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
