Dang Tom..... I just sent out a more wordy version of what you just said. This is getting strange. Not sure why it hasn't been disseminated yet (my email), but I swear I sent it just moments before your email hit my system.
You just added some fuel to my fire. Short version: I, with my rather inexperienced eye (160 experience, that is) is seeing a pattern that seems to indicate what we would call low radiation angles aren't really optimum for long range 160 communications. The other email goes into a little more detail in why I am thinking this way. Morning enhancement, especially with high angle radiators (like mine) where I am working Japan and Chile on a radiator that can very truthfully be called an NVIS antenna. On higher frequencies, a scaled version of my antenna wouldn't radiate a signal out of the southwest region, much less thousands of miles distant. Just a thought! Again, my other email expounds a little more, but this was the conclusion in a nutshell. Maybe "low horizontal" antennas really ARE better on 160 than they should be..... Given our experience with low antennas on the higher bands, it seems counter-intuitive..... But there it is. Mike AB7ZU Kuhi no ka lima, hele no ka maka On Oct 24, 2012, at 17:12, "Tom W8JI" <w...@w8ji.com> wrote: >> If we knew those, then we could calculate the location and distance of the >> signal hops. That might give us some insight as to why some people have >> found a taller monopole to be worse than a shorter one at a given distance. > > Back in the 70's or 80's there was speculation a low angle was lossy from > grazing along, based on others having poor experiences with taller verticals. > The top of my tall tower had some antennas and side arms which top loaded it > a bit, but not much. Certainly the wave refracts gradually at a minimum, and > so I think distance would not tell anyone much. There have been a host of > theories since the 1960's, even some from Stew the real W1BB. :-) > > I don't know what happens when it gets up in the soup, although people like > K9LA should be pretty well versed on it. I only know things behave > differently all the time, and what antenna generally works most of the time. > > For example, at sunrise most of the time almost anything reasonably efficient > works about the same here. It's more a matter of ERP at any not-too-low angle > and any polarization. > > 73 Tom > _______________________________________________ > Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com _______________________________________________ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
