Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Hi Jim The omission of the words ‘inverted vee’ in front of ‘dipole’ for Tom W8JI’s antenna up 300 feet high was a slip of the keyboard at my end! I used to work Tom regularly back when he had the antenna up and helped him with comparative signal reports. When he was doing signal comparisons, Tom never used to name the particular antenna he was using at any one time, so as to remove the possibility of any psychological bias that might occur if the station he was working happened to favour a particular type of antenna. Each antenna Tom used was only referred to as ‘Antenna 1’ or ‘Antenna 2’ and he told me he also used to switch the designations around. As you say, an inverted-vee dipole is definitely inferior to a flat-top dipole. From memory, I recall John ON4UN found by modelling that a 90 degree inverted vee in the broadside direction was around 1 to 1.5dB down on a flat top dipole at the same height as the inverted vee’s apex – and the radiation angle of the latter was slightly higher, owing to average height of the latter being less. While 1 to 1.5dB might not mean much on the upper bands, on noisy 160m it might make the difference in being above (or below) the noise at a DX station. All that being said, my main point was that a combination of latitude (reasonable high) and low soil conductivity in south-west VK6 mean that the losses of predominantly vertically polarised antennas are such that a predominantly horizontally-polarised antenna is better. My present inverted-vee dipole has its apex at 90 feet, but I’d swap it like a shot for a flat-top at 90’ if the yard-size here allowed. Vy 73 Steve, VK6VZ (also G3ZZD and VY2LF) ## W8JI never had a dipole up 300 ft. He had an inverted VEEup 300 ft. I believe the enclosed angle was far less than 90 degrees. You require 2 x 300 ft towers to string up a 160m dipole at a height of 300 ft. W8JI only had 1 x 300 ft tower at the time. Tom, N6BT is adamant that a rotary dipole will outperform an inverted vee by 6 db, with the apex of the Vee at the same height as the rotary dipole. N6BT also claimed the rotary dipole would have a 14 db FS on DX signals. ## Years ago, I heard these 2 fellows on from Oregon. One of them had up his new F12 160m rotary dipole, mounted on top of his 120 ft tower. This 160m rotary dipole was aprx 102 ft long, and used LL wires both above..and below the main trunk section. The fellow was using a MFJ-259 at the time, and those things wont work below 1800 khz. The rotary dipole was resonant below 1800 khz.They finally got it sorted out..and resonated it at the low end of 160m band. 2:1 SWR BW was aprx 18 khz. IE: + /- 9 khz.. Relays have to be used to switch band segments about. The very 1st DX station he worked was a 4X4 on CW. go figure. Trying to work EU from the west coast on 160M is a tough nut to crack. ## If using an inverted vee..and say oriented N-S. then move the legs so they are now E-W, I never saw any difference, minor at best, but that was on 80m, and also 40m. and in both cases, the re-orientation of the legs was done fairly quickly. I believe the baluns I used at the time were flaky at best... BN-86 junk. ## Other than the fellow in ORE, I never heard about anybody else using a loaded rotary dipole on 160m. I have heard several rotary dipoles on both 80m and also 40m. The 80m rotary dipoles that I have heard on the air had pretty substantial signals if oriented broadside in my direction. When the bands were lousy, and signals were weak, the fellows with the 80m rotary dipoles were way ahead of the fellows with the inverted vees. I never did find out what the RX noise level was like with the 160m rotary dipole in Ore. Jim VE7RF --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2018 00:23:15 -0400 (EDT) From: donov...@starpower.net To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles www.arrl.org/news/storm-takes-down-amateur-radio-contest-club-towers-in-northern-europe ## Per the OH8X current website, they still have several towers up. They think the rotating 300 ft tower that came crashing down in a windstorm, was caused by a failure of the auto mechanism, that auto orients the 5 el 80m yagi, and the 3 el 160M yagi below it, in high winds http://www.radioarcala.com ## The idea was to orient the yagis, such that minimum torque was applied to the tower itself. Basicly, the tower twisted itself apart. The issue with the rotating towers is, the tower is free to twist all it wants. The guy wires terminate on the huge guy rings, not the tower itself.Think of it as a 300 ft long drive shaft, fixed at the bottom end, and free to twist at the top end. It wound up like a pretzel. Jim VE7RF _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
www.arrl.org/news/storm-takes-down-amateur-radio-contest-club-towers-in-northern-europe - Original Message - From: "Merv Schweigert via Topband" <topband@contesting.com> To: topband@contesting.com Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2018 9:33:19 PM Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles Not sure how long they were on, but I remember it was the years of decent propagation My experience hearing them was at the sunrise and sunset time to KH6. I could hear many OH stations and at no time was OH8X signal better than the other OH stations, many OH were stronger. If I remember by the next season the antenna was destroyed by the weather. So it seemed to be short lived. That was in 2008 and I worked them both sunrise and sunset times. 73 Merv K9FD/KH6 > Does anyone know when OH8X was active on 160? The RBN archive goes back to > 2009, snd it would be fairly easy to mine the archive. > 73 Pete N4ZR > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Mar 30, 2018, at 3:50 PM, cqtestk4xs--- via Topband >> <topband@contesting.com> wrote: >> >> >> Another thought on this. >> >> >> I visited W8JI's station some years ago where had the usual 4 square for 160 >> and also an inverted Vee at around 300 feet. He told me that the inverted >> Vee seldom played as good as or better than the 4 square The 4 square was >> usually much better. >> >> >> Bill K4XS/KH7XS >> >> >> >> -Original Message----- >> From: Greg - ZL3IX <zl...@inet.net.nz> >> To: topband <topband@contesting.com> >> Sent: Fri, Mar 30, 2018 7:34 pm >> Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles >> >> Hi Carl, >> >> OH8X was active for some months when I was making Qs with Eu, in >> particular OH. I never heard them at all, although I have no idea of >> exactly when they were QRV. My guess is that if their monster antenna >> had produced results, they would have been a lot more active. We can >> certainly draw inferences from that! >> >> In contrast, I have made many Qs with other guys running good stations >> with vertical Tx, such as OH2MA and OH3XR. In fact if there is any >> propagation at all between ZL and Eu, OH is often one of the first areas >> to benefit. >> >> Conclusion - OH-ZL is not a particularly difficult path, and if the OH8X >> antenna had been effective, I would have easily heard them. >> >> 73, Greg, ZL3IX >>> It would have been great to have had the OH8X 160m Yagi up for a long time >>> so RBN could have been used to compare it to nearby vertical antennas. It >>> would have shown how much of this theory is applicable in the real world. >>> >>> >> _ >> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband >> >> _ >> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > _ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Not sure how long they were on, but I remember it was the years of decent propagation My experience hearing them was at the sunrise and sunset time to KH6. I could hear many OH stations and at no time was OH8X signal better than the other OH stations, many OH were stronger. If I remember by the next season the antenna was destroyed by the weather. So it seemed to be short lived. That was in 2008 and I worked them both sunrise and sunset times. 73 Merv K9FD/KH6 Does anyone know when OH8X was active on 160? The RBN archive goes back to 2009, snd it would be fairly easy to mine the archive. 73 Pete N4ZR Sent from my iPhone On Mar 30, 2018, at 3:50 PM, cqtestk4xs--- via Topband <topband@contesting.com> wrote: Another thought on this. I visited W8JI's station some years ago where had the usual 4 square for 160 and also an inverted Vee at around 300 feet. He told me that the inverted Vee seldom played as good as or better than the 4 square The 4 square was usually much better. Bill K4XS/KH7XS -Original Message- From: Greg - ZL3IX <zl...@inet.net.nz> To: topband <topband@contesting.com> Sent: Fri, Mar 30, 2018 7:34 pm Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles Hi Carl, OH8X was active for some months when I was making Qs with Eu, in particular OH. I never heard them at all, although I have no idea of exactly when they were QRV. My guess is that if their monster antenna had produced results, they would have been a lot more active. We can certainly draw inferences from that! In contrast, I have made many Qs with other guys running good stations with vertical Tx, such as OH2MA and OH3XR. In fact if there is any propagation at all between ZL and Eu, OH is often one of the first areas to benefit. Conclusion - OH-ZL is not a particularly difficult path, and if the OH8X antenna had been effective, I would have easily heard them. 73, Greg, ZL3IX It would have been great to have had the OH8X 160m Yagi up for a long time so RBN could have been used to compare it to nearby vertical antennas. It would have shown how much of this theory is applicable in the real world. _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Does anyone know when OH8X was active on 160? The RBN archive goes back to 2009, snd it would be fairly easy to mine the archive. 73 Pete N4ZR Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 30, 2018, at 3:50 PM, cqtestk4xs--- via Topband > <topband@contesting.com> wrote: > > > Another thought on this. > > > I visited W8JI's station some years ago where had the usual 4 square for 160 > and also an inverted Vee at around 300 feet. He told me that the inverted > Vee seldom played as good as or better than the 4 square The 4 square was > usually much better. > > > Bill K4XS/KH7XS > > > > -Original Message- > From: Greg - ZL3IX <zl...@inet.net.nz> > To: topband <topband@contesting.com> > Sent: Fri, Mar 30, 2018 7:34 pm > Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles > > Hi Carl, > > OH8X was active for some months when I was making Qs with Eu, in > particular OH. I never heard them at all, although I have no idea of > exactly when they were QRV. My guess is that if their monster antenna > had produced results, they would have been a lot more active. We can > certainly draw inferences from that! > > In contrast, I have made many Qs with other guys running good stations > with vertical Tx, such as OH2MA and OH3XR. In fact if there is any > propagation at all between ZL and Eu, OH is often one of the first areas > to benefit. > > Conclusion - OH-ZL is not a particularly difficult path, and if the OH8X > antenna had been effective, I would have easily heard them. > > 73, Greg, ZL3IX >> It would have been great to have had the OH8X 160m Yagi up for a long time >> so RBN could have been used to compare it to nearby vertical antennas. It >> would have shown how much of this theory is applicable in the real world. >> >> > > _ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > > _ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Jimmy Sullivan W7EJ (SK) had a rotary dipole up for 160 meters at his CN2R station. You can still see the antenna as his CN2R site is still up. It came down in a wind storm in 2009, and I have no real knowledge of how well it worked but one might contact Dick W7ZR for information as he did some contesting from there. Also Jimmy's logs are still on site as well. A brief look showed it worked pretty well. Morocco is about 32 degrees North. YMMV Lee K7TJR -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Thomson Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2018 10:15 AM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2018 23:15:00 +0800 From: "Steve Ireland" <vk...@arach.net.au> To: <topband@contesting.com> Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarisation and elevation angles http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2018 23:15:00 +0800 From: "Steve Ireland"To: Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarisation and elevation angles http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Greg, In concert with HA7RY (Tomi), one night I was monitoring OH8X while the monster Yagi was still up. At Tomi's QTH (in Hungary) it was very loud. I could barely copy it in FL. I worked EU stations that were much stronger. I think the antenna was too low and there was too much high-angle radiation. If they just would have made it vertical... 73, George. AA7JV On Sat, 31 Mar 2018 08:33:17 +1300 Greg - ZL3IXwrote: Hi Carl, OH8X was active for some months when I was making Qs with Eu, in particular OH. I never heard them at all, although I have no idea of exactly when they were QRV. My guess is that if their monster antenna had produced results, they would have been a lot more active. We can certainly draw inferences from that! In contrast, I have made many Qs with other guys running good stations with vertical Tx, such as OH2MA and OH3XR. In fact if there is any propagation at all between ZL and Eu, OH is often one of the first areas to benefit. Conclusion - OH-ZL is not a particularly difficult path, and if the OH8X antenna had been effective, I would have easily heard them. 73, Greg, ZL3IX It would have been great to have had the OH8X 160m Yagi up for a long time so RBN could have been used to compare it to nearby vertical antennas. It would have shown how much of this theory is applicable in the real world. _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Another thought on this. I visited W8JI's station some years ago where had the usual 4 square for 160 and also an inverted Vee at around 300 feet. He told me that the inverted Vee seldom played as good as or better than the 4 square The 4 square was usually much better. Bill K4XS/KH7XS -Original Message- From: Greg - ZL3IX <zl...@inet.net.nz> To: topband <topband@contesting.com> Sent: Fri, Mar 30, 2018 7:34 pm Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles Hi Carl, OH8X was active for some months when I was making Qs with Eu, in particular OH. I never heard them at all, although I have no idea of exactly when they were QRV. My guess is that if their monster antenna had produced results, they would have been a lot more active. We can certainly draw inferences from that! In contrast, I have made many Qs with other guys running good stations with vertical Tx, such as OH2MA and OH3XR. In fact if there is any propagation at all between ZL and Eu, OH is often one of the first areas to benefit. Conclusion - OH-ZL is not a particularly difficult path, and if the OH8X antenna had been effective, I would have easily heard them. 73, Greg, ZL3IX > It would have been great to have had the OH8X 160m Yagi up for a long time > so RBN could have been used to compare it to nearby vertical antennas. It > would have shown how much of this theory is applicable in the real world. > > _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Hi Carl, OH8X was active for some months when I was making Qs with Eu, in particular OH. I never heard them at all, although I have no idea of exactly when they were QRV. My guess is that if their monster antenna had produced results, they would have been a lot more active. We can certainly draw inferences from that! In contrast, I have made many Qs with other guys running good stations with vertical Tx, such as OH2MA and OH3XR. In fact if there is any propagation at all between ZL and Eu, OH is often one of the first areas to benefit. Conclusion - OH-ZL is not a particularly difficult path, and if the OH8X antenna had been effective, I would have easily heard them. 73, Greg, ZL3IX It would have been great to have had the OH8X 160m Yagi up for a long time so RBN could have been used to compare it to nearby vertical antennas. It would have shown how much of this theory is applicable in the real world. _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Hi Luke, What I should have said is that propagation towards much lower latitudes doesn't suffer from the polarization related issues that high latitude paths suffer from. My thinking suffers from northern hemisphere biases! 73 Frank W3LPL - Original Message - From: "VK3HJ" <vk3hj_l...@barefoothorse.com.au> To: "topBand List" <topband@contesting.com> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 5:04:13 AM Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles -Original Message- From: donov...@starpower.net "160 meter long distance propagation is much more efficient to the south " Do you mean "between higher latitudes and lower latitudes"? To my south there are only penguins, and Tasmanians. Luke VK3HJ _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
-Original Message- From: donov...@starpower.net "160 meter long distance propagation is much more efficient to the south " Do you mean "between higher latitudes and lower latitudes"? To my south there are only penguins, and Tasmanians. Luke VK3HJ _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Hi Mark, Very true on the HF bands. but not true on 160 meters at mid to high latitudes. On 160 meters both entry and exit polarization tend to be vertically polarized at mid to high latitudes. This also applies to the exit from the ionosphere and re-entry into the ionosphere of intermediate hops over land and sea at mid to high latitudes. Horizontal polarization is much more efficiently reflected by intermediate hops over land, both polarizations are efficiently reflected over sea. Unfortunately, horizontal polarization doesn't exit and re-enter the ionosphere efficiently on 160 meters at mid to high latitudes, so most of the energy re-entering the ionosphere after an intermediate hop is inefficiently reflected vertical polarization at mid and high latitudes. This means that long distance propagation over the North Atlantic on 160 meters is much more efficient from W1 and VE1 where the first intermediate hop is over the Atlantic Ocean, while propagation from the other US and VE call areas has its first hop over a much less efficient land. 160 meter long distance propagation is much more efficient to the south 73 Frank W3LPL - Original Message - From: "Mark K3MSB" <mark.k3...@gmail.com> To: "Carl Luetzelschwab" <carlluetzelsch...@gmail.com> Cc: "topBand List" <topband@contesting.com> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2018 10:20:11 PM Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles Carl I learned that polarization is not predictable after the first ionospheric bounce. 73 Mark K3MSB On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 1:30 PM, Carl Luetzelschwab < carlluetzelsch...@gmail.com> wrote: > Polarization - As Jerry K4SAV stated, the electron gyro-frequency plays an > important role on 160m since our ionosphere is immersed in a magnetic field > - it also affects ionospheric absorption and refraction. For those of us at > mid to high latitudes, vertical polarization on 160m is *theoretically* > optimum since it couples the most energy to the limiting polarization at > the entrance to the ionosphere. I don't understand Mark K3MSB's comment > about the polarization terms disappearing unless it has to do with that > fact that the polarization going up to the ionosphere has nothing to do > with the polarization going thru the ionosphere (which is dictated by the > ionosphere). > > Elevation angles - Ray tracing shows that elevation angles up to about 10 > degrees are E hops since there is still enough E region ionization at night > to refract 160m. I don't know how important these E hops are - probably > okay for short distance, but the losses (absorption and ground reflection) > add up quickly for the longer distances. Above 15 degrees or so we get F > hops. From 10-15 degrees is where ducting occurs in the electron density > valley above the nighttime E region. Ducting in the valley likely requires > shallow angles. But when a signal gets dumped out of the duct, that > suggests a higher down-coming angle. > > K4SAV said it best: ". . . and the real world on 160 is very complicated." > > Carl K9LA > _ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Mark, > I learned that polarization is not predictable after the first ionospheric bounce. Theoretically, polarization is well-defined as an electromagnetic wave progresses thru the ionosphere. What's important is the "limiting" polarization at the entry and exit points of the ionosphere, and our job is to best match our antennas to the limiting polarization to couple the most energy into the ordinary wave or the extraordinary and couple the most down-coming energy into our receive antenna. On 3.5 MHz and higher, the limiting polarization is essentially circular, so your antenna's polarization is not real important as both waves propagate with similar absorption and refraction. But on 160m, because of being close to the electron gyro-frequency, the extraordinary wave suffers significantly more absorption. Thus you better make sure you couple the most energy to the ordinary wave on 160m - which is vertical for those at mid to high latitudes. It would have been great to have had the OH8X 160m Yagi up for a long time so RBN could have been used to compare it to nearby vertical antennas. It would have shown how much of this theory is applicable in the real world. Of course the limiting polarization will vary as the ionosphere varies diurnally and day-to-day. But still, in general, most of us at mid to high latitudes should use vertical polarization on 160m. For those near the equator (like the W4s), when they work 160m long path to the southeast thru southwest, their entry and exit points are near the equator, where horizontal polarization should be optimum. Those stations down south using HWFs (horizontal Waller flags) for receive seem to hear long path very well. It would be interesting to see what happens if they used horizontal antennas for transmit. Carl K9LA _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Carl I learned that polarization is not predictable after the first ionospheric bounce. 73 Mark K3MSB On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 1:30 PM, Carl Luetzelschwab < carlluetzelsch...@gmail.com> wrote: > Polarization - As Jerry K4SAV stated, the electron gyro-frequency plays an > important role on 160m since our ionosphere is immersed in a magnetic field > - it also affects ionospheric absorption and refraction. For those of us at > mid to high latitudes, vertical polarization on 160m is *theoretically* > optimum since it couples the most energy to the limiting polarization at > the entrance to the ionosphere. I don't understand Mark K3MSB's comment > about the polarization terms disappearing unless it has to do with that > fact that the polarization going up to the ionosphere has nothing to do > with the polarization going thru the ionosphere (which is dictated by the > ionosphere). > > Elevation angles - Ray tracing shows that elevation angles up to about 10 > degrees are E hops since there is still enough E region ionization at night > to refract 160m. I don't know how important these E hops are - probably > okay for short distance, but the losses (absorption and ground reflection) > add up quickly for the longer distances. Above 15 degrees or so we get F > hops. From 10-15 degrees is where ducting occurs in the electron density > valley above the nighttime E region. Ducting in the valley likely requires > shallow angles. But when a signal gets dumped out of the duct, that > suggests a higher down-coming angle. > > K4SAV said it best: ". . . and the real world on 160 is very complicated." > > Carl K9LA > _ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles
Polarization - As Jerry K4SAV stated, the electron gyro-frequency plays an important role on 160m since our ionosphere is immersed in a magnetic field - it also affects ionospheric absorption and refraction. For those of us at mid to high latitudes, vertical polarization on 160m is *theoretically* optimum since it couples the most energy to the limiting polarization at the entrance to the ionosphere. I don't understand Mark K3MSB's comment about the polarization terms disappearing unless it has to do with that fact that the polarization going up to the ionosphere has nothing to do with the polarization going thru the ionosphere (which is dictated by the ionosphere). Elevation angles - Ray tracing shows that elevation angles up to about 10 degrees are E hops since there is still enough E region ionization at night to refract 160m. I don't know how important these E hops are - probably okay for short distance, but the losses (absorption and ground reflection) add up quickly for the longer distances. Above 15 degrees or so we get F hops. From 10-15 degrees is where ducting occurs in the electron density valley above the nighttime E region. Ducting in the valley likely requires shallow angles. But when a signal gets dumped out of the duct, that suggests a higher down-coming angle. K4SAV said it best: ". . . and the real world on 160 is very complicated." Carl K9LA _ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband