[Lowfer] LF reception and other misc stuff

[Jim McClanahan]

I have about 20 acres (most of it wooded), so I actually had a similar 
situation. My PA0RDT miniwhip died a few months ago after about three years of 
service and I haven't had a chance to rebuilt it.

I first placed it about 20' from the house. I was using military surplus tent 
poles and I had it up around 25' for a while. There were woods and the house 
pretty much at that level and I was finding that putting it higher led to better 
performance. It's interesting you word your question "signal to noise" because 
the noise floor was pretty consistent, but the signals would increase in 
strength as I increased height.

Eventually I moved it so it is roughly 50' from the house. It's up around 35' 
now. That put it above nearby trees and such. There was a noticeable difference 
as I hoisted it up a section at a time until I got to above the trees--then it 
pretty much stayed the same. I brought it down to 35' for stability..

I will say that in some ways I have the opposite geography--I'm on a slight 
rise, but there are ridges on most sides of me between a quarter mile and five 
miles (depending on direction) from the antenna.

My philosophy on most things related to antennas is that you're better to 
experiment than to trust conventional wisdom or the advice of others. But my 
experience was the best reception was getting it away from the house (to lower 
the noise floor) and above everything surrounding it (the trees on two sides).

 73 de
Jim W4JBM


http://www.hamuniverse.com/w4jbm/

"With a soldering iron in one hand, a schematic in the other, and a puzzled look 
on his face..."

----- Original Message ----

From: Douglas D. Williams <kb4oer at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of the Lowfer (US, European, &amp, UK) and MedFer bands" 
<lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wed, September 26, 2012 4:57:05 PM
Subject: [Lowfer] LF reception and other misc stuff

I have had about 1.6 acres of land to work with since 1991. From that
time until now, approximately 1 acre of that has been "lawn" and the other
0.6 acres has been heavily wooded. In the next month or so, I am going to
hire a man with a bulldozer, chainsaw, flatbed truck, and some helpers to
clear out the wooded portion of my property. Once he is finished, I will
plant some grass and throw some straw.

My most recent receiving antenna has been an active whip antenna mounted on
a 10' mast about 50' from my house, but (unfortunately) only about 20' from
the nearest trees. Once the work is finished in the next month or so, I
expect the active whip to be about 30' from the nearest trees.

It would be rather trivial to raise the active whip another ten to twenty
feet via an additional one or two ten foot section of galvanized mast. I
have that much coax coiled up in my "shack", so I wouldn't even have to
splice anything. My question is, is it worth doing? Do you gentlemen think
that raising the Clifton Labs active antenna another ten to twenty
feet would produce a better signal-to-noise ratio?

My property is at the very top of a hill (probably a "mountain" to you
flatlanders). The biggest concern I would have by making this change would
be the increased chance of a direct lightning strike to the antenna,
especially considering that raising it another twenty feet, in combination
with removing a bunch of trees, would make the antenna the tallest
structure on the hill.

Any advice is appreciated.

The Clifton Labs documentation states that raising the base of the active
antenna beyond about ten feet is unnecessary.

Doug - KB4OER