At 2/18/2007 06:21, you wrote: >I remember this trick being done by a ham in upstate New York when I lived >up there over 35 years ago. I thought that this only "fixes" the >reflected power problem but the performance of the antenna is poor due to >the signal take-off angle. The foil does not fix the phasing of the >elements in the radome. > >Joe
I tried this mod. with only slight variations, then compared the gain against my other antennas & found it to be as expected given the antenna length. Unfortunately I don't have a near-field range to actually measure the pattern, but with all the newfangled & relatively cheap vector measurement hardware available today, this could change! BTW, the variations were as follows: -used 2" aluminum foil tape throughout -antenna was suspended horizontally about 4 ft. off the ground. I found that the VSWR did not change at all when put up in the air, so I did all the work & testing in that horizontal position. Apparently the ground/concrete/stucco around here is lossy enough to simulate free space as far as the antenna is concerned. Bob NO6B
