[Lowfer] LF reception and other misc stuff

[Douglas D. Williams]

Jim, thanks.

Yes, I believe I will start experimenting, once the rest of the property is
cleared, by raising the base of the antenna up to 30 feet. This should
be simple, as I have coax coiled up in the shack, as well as a couple
of extra 10' sections of mast.


-Doug




On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 6:59 PM, Jim McClanahan <w4jbm at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> 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
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