[K3PZN-List] FD Antenna Location Thoughts

[Curt Milton via K3PZN-List]

I spent just a little time, and found a presentation from a nearby FD on how they locate their antennas.  If we run 6A we should give this some thought, lest we not have the kindest thoughts to one another when we are on the same band.  

Okay I confess the file I found is w3ao_2009.pdf.  No I have no interest in making our FD that hard, and I wish for us to all be home early Sunday afternoon.  (yes think 90 degrees F plus at tear down).  

Some simple calculation conveys that even if we used all K3's (which we don't have .... ), we can't separate the rigs enough within the 1000 foot rule and our site constraints.  So we must use spacing in conjunction with another approach.  

Here is something I think we should try - arrange to put our 20m SSB, RTTY/PSK31 and 5m SSB into as close to a straight line as possible - roughly North-South but we have a little lee-way to be off some number of degrees.  The straight line arrangement will reduce coupling.  20m and 15m are our critical bands in this regard.  

I am thinking that the NY3A antennas are verticals ?  If this is the case, they provide some additional dB's in rejection -- and they can be off of the line, and still achieve enough rejection.    

I am less concerned about 40m and 80m because the higher QRN masks some of the noise we share.  But we should try to put the low band digital antenna into the same line as the similar antenna used on SSB, so that we won't share noise on 40m.    

A little thought now will help -- and also hopefully minimize how many masts we must install.  Take a look at the W3AO site - you will be amazed how they fit the antennas into fewer masts and space, yet co-exist.  
A straight line arrangement of our 3 primary SSB/digital masts across the longest line we can muster does seem to make sense.  

We can also spectrum manage so that digital and CW are not both on the same band -- most of the time we should have 3 open bands, and we can trade spectrum through the day.   
6 Rigs -- we need to gather about 12 ops or more -- even with 6 'iron people' available Saturday night.  Any chance that you the reader could join us ??
73 Curt