Just a minor point. Raising the counterpoise a foot or more above ground rather than just throwing it on the ground will have the effect of reducing ground losses and getting more signal radiated. So rather than just toss the counterpoise wire on the ground, it’s a good thing to keep it elevated — run it from where you have it connected (e.g., table top) out to a bush, a branch, to a fiberglass driveway marker stuck in the ground, whatever’s available. I carry a piece of small para-cord so I can tie the winder that holds my radial wire off to something. If you’re inside on a second floor, it may not matter much, but at a typical field site with lousy soil conductivity it can.
A single elevated radial will also cause a very slight distortion in the usual uniform radiation pattern with max response in the direction of the radial. Two elevated radial wires (at about 180 deg) give you the more usual non-directional pattern. Grant NQ5T K3 #2091, KX3 #8342 > On Mar 25, 2016, at 10:00 AM, Wayne Burdick <[email protected]> wrote: > > Jim, > > Like I implied in my posting, portable operation is often more about > convenience than signal strength. > > Your estimate of around 7 dB sounds reasonable. That's about 1.5 S-units, to > use the vernacular. When a band is open, this loss still allows a lot of > contacts to be made. > > Example: A couple of months ago my son and I were doing a bit of hiking/bird > watching at Redwood Shores. While Griffin stalked hooded mergansers with his > camera, I quickly set up my KX3 at a picnic table. I attached the whip with a > right-angle BNC, along with the 13' counterpoise wire. 20 meter CW was very > active with EU contest stations, most of them probably running a KW ("or > so"). I called several of them running 5 W, and worked most of them on one > call. > > I may have been down 7 dB from a full-size vertical, but I got through > nonetheless. And I didn't have to frighten any birds away with my usual > weight-tossing wild-west antenna deployment routine. > > Sometimes size doesn't matter. > > Wayne > N6KR > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
