[HCARC] antenna program

[Kerry Sandstrom]

Steve,

On HF with a dipole, the hill makes very little difference.  The vertical 
angle of radiation from a low dipole is generally above 30 degrees.  Your 
antenna won't even know the hill is there.  When I lived in Albuquerque, I 
was less than ten miles west of Sandia crest.  At 11,000 feet it was 5000 
feet higher than my location.  When I looked to the east all I saw was 
mountain!  I still worked lots of stations on HF that were east of me.

I'm glad you heard the talk and enjoyed it.  There are no mysteries with 
antennas.  Any piece of wire in the air will work.  The biggest challenge is 
matching the antenna to the transmitter.  Some of the commercial antennas 
seem to do an adequate job of presenting a reasonable load to the 
transmitter.  If not, an antenna tuner should take care of it.  And, don't 
even think about the hill, on HF it is not a player!

Kerry