[Elecraft] Antenna comment

[Jim Danehy]

You can be a mile high (5,280’) on a plateau that goes for many miles. That still is FLAT LAND as far as a TAKE OFF ANGLE.
What counts is the IMMEDIATE SLOPE of the land underneath the antenna. The first 1000 + feet is critical. The FIRST BOUNCE to the IONOSPHERE is the criterion for a DX LOCATION. My current location IMMEDIATELY slopes from 800 feet to 400 feet for a mile. That occurs near major tributaries. The River has taken millions of years to shove the ground away and cut a path for the water to flow. That creates hills

Back in the late 1970s I operated the CQ WW SSB Contest as a mobile station. One hundred watts and an 8 foot whip. I parked at 800 feet above Sea Level and looked directly down on the Ohio River 400 feet down. In 2 days during the daylight hours I worked 76 DXCC entities. Results in 1976 CQ Magazine I think it was. 

High up in the mountains is not sufficient  if you don’t have an IMMEDIATE DROP OFF that slopes downward. That is known as the take off angle.

A station in Barbados (8P6) asked me : “what you got in that car a Henry 2K” ?
Some things you don’t forget.

73
Jim W9VNE 

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