[Lowfer] Lowfer TAG

[John Andrews]

Jay, all,

I'm not so sure, after having a little observational time at 130 miles 
in the last week. The TAG signal into my old WD2XES loop is actually 
fairly good. My initial impression came from a 5' loop that is not a 
great performer, and deserves to be improved.

But the real clue may be simply the temperature. I put the beacon on 
much earlier this year than I recently have. And the weather here in New 
England has been consistently warmer than usual, even allowing for the 
time frame. I think we're just seeing the well-known drop in signal 
strength with warmer wx.

Comparisons with winter signals would be difficult, at best.

So, while I suspect no great year-to-year change, I still believe that 
this loop in the pines is not a great performer.

Unfortunately, in order to prove that, I would have to put up a similar 
antenna in the more hard-wooded area behind the cabin. There is an 
intervening 13 kV power line right of way that I would have to cross, 
and the ground is an extremely rocky leftover from the last glacier. 
Burying wires would be quite a project, and likely highly frowned-upon 
by the Power Powers that Be.

A comment was made earlier about loops only producing magnetic fields. 
That's not at all true for the near-fields that drop off more quickly, 
but factor into the antenna efficiency. Electric fields are definitely 
there near the antenna, and may be very affected by the gooey pine sap 
in >100' trees.

One additional data point. I experimented with a 50' vertical wire for a 
while last month, though I didn't put it on the air. It was right at the 
lake shore, but within 20' of two large pines. I had four, 50' radials, 
including one into the lake, and the feedpoint resistance was a nasty 
280 Ohms. Adding more ground wires and rods actually increased the 
resistance. The thing was totally dominated by the trees, clearly. Gave up.

So, I'm going to ride with this loop setup for the upcoming season, and 
think it will pose the usual tough target.

John, W1TAG

On 10/6/2023 12:58 PM, jrusgrove at comcast.net wrote:
> John
> 
> After a number of checks this week
> I'd have to agree that TAG is way down from it's usual signal strength.
> 
> Jay W1VD
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: John Andrews <w1tag at charter.net>
> Reply-To: Discussion of the Lowfer \(US, European, & UK\) and MedFer bands
> <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
> To: Discussion of the Lowfer (US, European, &amp, UK) and MedFer bands
> <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: 10/1/2023 7:39:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [Lowfer] Lowfer TAG
> 
> 
> 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
> 
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