Topband: New beverage
After looking at their literature it appears to me that this is nothing more then two beverages, one in each direction, with the feed unit being, perhaps, a couple relays. I don't see the merit in using RG6 as the beverage wire: its heavy, will need more supports, and compared to other solutions, perhaps more expensive. And the fact that the feed unit can be placed anywhere along the antenna? I must be missing something clever because all that would seem to do is make one direction's wire longer and the other shorter? Ron N4XD All good topband ops know how to put up a beverage at night. _ Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: New beverage
Electronically both directions are full length ... I suspect the design is similar to the one shown about half way down the page here: http://kw2p.blogspot.com/2010/08/kw2p-beverage-antenna-designs.html 73, ... Joe, W4TV On 5/16/2013 1:19 PM, Ron Spencer wrote: After looking at their literature it appears to me that this is nothing more then two beverages, one in each direction, with the feed unit being, perhaps, a couple relays. I don't see the merit in using RG6 as the beverage wire: its heavy, will need more supports, and compared to other solutions, perhaps more expensive. And the fact that the feed unit can be placed anywhere along the antenna? I must be missing something clever because all that would seem to do is make one direction's wire longer and the other shorter? Ron N4XD All good topband ops know how to put up a beverage at night. _ Topband Reflector All good topband ops know how to put up a beverage at night. _ Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: New beverage
After looking at their literature it appears to me that this is nothing more then two beverages, one in each direction, with the feed unit being, perhaps, a couple relays. I don't see the merit in using RG6 as the beverage wire: its heavy, will need more supports, and compared to other solutions, perhaps more expensive. And the fact that the feed unit can be placed anywhere along the antenna? I must be missing something clever because all that would seem to do is make one direction's wire longer and the other shorter? Since the antenna is a transmission line, with suitable end and center transformers, the feedpoint can be placed anywhere and the full length used. With different transformers, any reasonable type of transmission line can be used. All good topband ops know how to put up a beverage at night. _ Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: New beverage
Good quality flooded RG-6 laying on the ground (BOG) might be an easy install like before contests at some locations. However I have no idea on how this would perform compared to an elevated version. If the directivety is maintained and the S/N ratio is still usable then such a concept would be worth considering. Such an installation might also be considered for DX-peditions where supports for a normal Beverage are just not available. Even for a short term use a normal consumer grade 1000 foot roll of RG-6 is competitive with the same amount of #12 or 14 THNN and certainly more competitive than 1000' of higher grade ladder line. It is nice however having a vendor who offers a unique of the shelf solution and it would nice to get some feedback on A/B checks with the conventional Beverage. Herb, KV4FZ On 5/16/2013 1:57 PM, Tom W8JI wrote: After looking at their literature it appears to me that this is nothing more then two beverages, one in each direction, with the feed unit being, perhaps, a couple relays. I don't see the merit in using RG6 as the beverage wire: its heavy, will need more supports, and compared to other solutions, perhaps more expensive. And the fact that the feed unit can be placed anywhere along the antenna? I must be missing something clever because all that would seem to do is make one direction's wire longer and the other shorter? Since the antenna is a transmission line, with suitable end and center transformers, the feedpoint can be placed anywhere and the full length used. With different transformers, any reasonable type of transmission line can be used. All good topband ops know how to put up a beverage at night. _ Topband Reflector All good topband ops know how to put up a beverage at night. _ Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: New beverage
Go to http://exax.net/index.html and scroll down the page to center fed steerable wave antenna. The diagram shows how you can feed a 2-wire Beverage in the center, or anywhere along its length. The two transformers in the middle have center taps that pass signal currents from one side of the antenna to the other side. Therefore the entire length of the Beverage is active at all times. I built one of these systems many years ago and it worked very well. The reflection transformers at the end function exactly the same as the reflection transformers in a conventional 2-wire Beverage, and convert common mode currents to transmission line currents that are sent back to the center of the antenna. The secondary windings of the two transformers in the center pick off the transmission line currents and provide receiver feeds for two directions. Functionally it is the same as a conventional 2-wire Beverage of the same overall length, except it gives you the convenience of feeding it anywhere. 73, John W1FV All good topband ops know how to put up a beverage at night. _ Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: New beverage
Go to http://exax.net/index.html and scroll down the page to center fed steerable wave antenna. The diagram shows how you can feed a 2-wire Beverage in the center, or anywhere along its length. The two transformers in the middle have center taps that pass signal currents from one side of the antenna to the other side. Therefore the entire length of the Beverage is active at all times. Except with coax, you would not connect across the center tap point. There would be a direct connection across the shields, since the center has no common mode (antenna mode) currents at all. With a true balanced line, the common mode (antenna mode) connection is across a center tap. All good topband ops know how to put up a beverage at night. _ Topband Reflector
