[Elecraft] Skunks and Antennas (WAS:] WA3WSJ's EPA Skunk WorksSite - Check it out!)

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Bob, N7XY wrote:

I replaced it with a Hy-Gain AV-640 vertical mounted to a piece of 2  
in pipe I strapped to the side of the house.  I have had better  
results with the vertical, but the ridge line antenna did more than  
just warm the clouds.

--------------------------

You are one of those people many of us envy, even if you can't put up a
tower and beam. You live on an island surrounded by salt water. Sure, it's a
fair-sized island, but it's a far better environment than many of us have
for verticals. 

One of the problems with comparing antennas, even verticals vs. horizontals,
is that unless one can do really fast switching between the two antennas,
making the change in a second or two at most, it's very hard to tell the
difference. Even if the difference is 6 dB or more - a full S-Unit on most
receivers - it can be hard to spot unless it's done very quickly. And
different antennas will favor different propagation. It's more than just the
angle of maximum radiation but many other factors come into play as well. 

One can apply many basic rules and concepts when choosing an antenna type,
but the most universally true rules that seem to hold up over time are:

1) Bigger is better than smaller.

2) Higher is better than lower. 

It's what we do to achieve those the best we can in any given situation that
leaves many of us staring at our rooflines so much the neighbors start
wondering if we're a bit "touched in the head"...

One commercial group who has done a lot to document the best tradeoffs in
installing verticals, and who has had their verticals used successfully on
many DX-peditions, is Force 12 in California. Of course, their DX-pedition
verticals were also all (as far as I know) on an island or beach overlooking
salt water <G>, but they put out some great signals. They have done a lot of
work testing and documenting things like the advantage of elevated radials,
which help avoid close-in ground losses by minimizing the coupling of RF
currents to the earth. They have a very informative FAQ page at 
http://force12inc.com/F12-Sigma-FAQ-1.htm or http://tinyurl.com/p5u2e. 

Ron AC7AC