[ICOM] AH-4 help

[David Nagel]

MIke and all;
   
  I have used the B&W antenna for several years now. The only problem I have is that I have to replace the suspension rope every coulple of years due to UV rot and general wear and tear. 
  You will find that many individuals out there, monoband purests all, will tell you that you might as well transmit into a dummy load. I don't know why. I can do all the communicating I desire using my setup.
   
  Good luck with your instalation and do not hang anything over, under or even near power lines. 
   
  Dave WD9BDZ
  

"Michael P. Olbrisch" <mike2004 at elp.rr.com> wrote:
  
Boy - you might be stirring up a hornet's nest mentioning that antenna.
Some thing it is little better than a dummy load. OTOH - my experience has
been that it worked well enough. Using it for military operations - we were
consistently (over a number of years) able to make contacts over 1000 miles
on a 3.2xx MHz freq. Performance above 5 MHz was at least as good as a
dipole. It was up as an inverted-V - 50 feet at the apex and 30 feet at the
ends, with the legs at about 160º - the V facing E-NE.

You may not need to fold it back - there may be trees or other supports you
can tie it off to. And it don't have to be in a straight line, the legs
180º from each other. Anything better than 120º will work, with some
skewing of the radiation pattern. 

Last - everyone always assumes that metal near a radiating element is bad.
That ain't necessarily so. A yagi antenna is designed to put other metal
near a radiating element. So while unpredictable - you may find that on
some freqs it will enhance your operation. Same with the legs - at some
angle the signals add as in a V-beam. Impossible to tell what the effects
will be - so try experimenting.

Good luck.

Mike. KD9KC
El Paso, TX.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> [mailto:icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Larry Winslow
> Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 7:03 AM
> To: ICOM Reflector
> Subject: Re: [ICOM] AH-4 help
> 
> Now why didn't I think of that??? Sometimes we 
> miss the obvious. I'll give your suggestion a lot 
> of thought. The thing that pops into my mind is 
> that the vertical surfaces of the apartment 
> building are what's called "rockcrete" which 
> means there's chicken-wire type mesh under the 
> surface. Still your idea has a lot of merit.
> 
> Thanks
> 73 - Larry WØNFU
> larry_w at comcast.net


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