[ILQSO] antennas for ILQP

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

All the discussion of high angle antennas for 40 meters (or elsewhere)  
assumes that the ionosphere will support propagation at those angles. That  simply 
was not the case this year, and is not likely to be so until the solar  flux 
gets above the 67 or so that it has been running. I won't take a lot - a  flux 
of 80 would likely do the trick. But it was not your antenna that prevented  
40 meter qsos in state this year.

KYFC for some sunspots,  soon!


Jim  K8MR




In a message dated 10/24/2007 1:58:16 P.M. Eastern Standard  Time, 
w9ebk at warpnet.net writes:

Paul,
Last year there was some a similar discussion on the Society  of Midwest 
Contesters reflector. Someone sent me a summary of an article that  had been 
published in the National Contest Journal. In the article they had  modeled the 
best antenna for close-in contacts. I will need to find the e-mail  to get all 
the details, but for 40 meters the "perfect" antenna is a dipole at  50 feet, 
with reflectors 5% longer than the dipole, strung up at a height of 5  feet and 
placed 5 feet out from the dipole. These reflectors aid in high angle  
radiation. For the 2006 ILQSO I implimented some of these ideas. My dipole was  only 
about 40 feet, and I used only one reflector, laid on the ground under the  
antenna. In side-by-side tests with a vertical it was about 10 Db better than a  
vertical for in-state contacts. Imagine what it would have been had I 
properly  elevated it and used 2 elevated reflectors. It was about equal to the 
vertical  on DX. I should have used that antenna again this year, as my 
2006 score was  double that of this years effort.
Don, W9EBK
 
 



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