[ILQSO] 40 meter horizontal mobile antenna ideas

[Samuel Saladino]

Chuck KI9A commented that he thought running a mobile whip in a horizontal position would provide disappointing results.  Chuck when you say polarization doesn't make a difference on HF, you're correct to a certain extent.  If your intent is to contact DX stations where the signal is bounced several times it doesn't make a difference as the polarization gets all mixed up anyway.  When running a mobile whip horizontally, as what's being suggested, you create what's known as the NVIS effect.  Don't just think of the signal traveling parallel along the surface of the earth, but also part of that signal is shooting straight up and straight down.  The portion of the signal shooting straight up is the one you're concerned with.  You want it to have an extremely high angle of takeoff.  It goes up, bounces off the upper ionosphere, and comes straight back down creating an almost perfect omnidirectional signal.  On 40 meters one usually sees a coverage area of between 300 to 500
 miles radius with a very strong signal.  The actual distance of coverage course depends on how high the signal goes before bouncing back.  I'm located up here on the Illinois-Wisconsin border, and during the Wisconsin QSO party this year I ran a 40 meter inverted vee, but with the apex only 7' above the ground.  The legs extended parallel to the ground also at 7'.  I worked stations from Rock County, which is the first county in WI north of my QTH all the way up to Burnett, Washburn and Sawyer.  I didn't seem to be able to work the last few counties in the state up there, whether it was due to shortcomings of the antenna, or simply because there wasn't anyone operating up there.  I can tell you that the stations I did work up there gave me tremendous reports with comments like "You're the strongest signal out there", "BOOMING signal" etc.  So I'm sold on the NVIS configuration, at the times where my intent is reliable communications over a limited area.  
 
73s Sam NW9T