[Lowfer] Lowfer TAG

[John Andrews]

Thanks for the reports. I'm seeing a fairly lousy signal in MA at 130 
miles, worse than last year, despite the same antenna and a little more 
antenna current.

I've been pondering a theory in the last year or so. There are two 
differences between Bill Ashlock's loops and mine. One, he experimented 
with copper tubing/piping as a conductor, and some of those versions 
were likely better than my RG-8 shield conductor. I have no reliable 
memory of which combinations produced what, but his signal was at worst 
much better than what I've gotten from the TAG loop in Maine.  Two, he 
had some oaks and maples nearby, not all pines the way I have at the TAG 
QTH in Maine. On that second theme, my experience with xmit loops at the 
Massachusetts QTH was pretty  good, and it's all oak trees there, no pines.

Continuing to pine away... This has been an unusual year for the 100 
foot plus pine trees at the TAG site. We have had a massive pine pitch 
problem at ground level, especially in the unusually warm period in 
early to mid September. The stuff got all over everything. It's been bad 
before, but never like that. The trees also have massive loads of pine 
cones at their tops. Some have come down already, but it's early for big 
drops unless the wind gets really wild.

Note that an older version of the TAG loop was supported on one end by a 
very big Poplar tree. That tree had to be removed maybe 5 years ago, and 
I have since had to rely more on pines.

So I'm wondering about the effect of an unusual amount of pine sap in 
those trees this year. I suspect the stuff must be a disaster as a 
dielectric. Maybe I'll make some measurements. Could those big, lossy 
conductors holding up and standing near the loop keep the various 
e-fields from forming?

Interesting stuff.

John, W1TAG