My antenna has two 45' topload wires that slope@45 degrees. Should they be
horizontal and is there an ideal length? It is fed thru an SGC tuner. All
opinions are welcome.
Bill/W3WH
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Reverb.
_
Topband Reflector
I would think that with optimized F/R for your Beverages that at least one
path would be somewhat quiet.
I was on 160 AM for a few hours last eve and QSO's out to 300-450 miles was
good copy with stations at the 100W level at both ends. Northern Maine,
Buffalo, WPA, and others were worked
On a side note WD-1A conductors are a copper/cadmium alloy; whatever that
means in RF resistance. Fine for a Beverage but what is the loss?
Carl
KM1H
- Original Message -
From: Gary Smith g...@ka1j.com
To: topband@contesting.com
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 1:22 AM
Subject: Re:
Posted on towertalk yesterday was the link to the free download of the
1952 text Radio Antenna Engineering
http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/edmund-laport/radio-antenna-engineering/ebook/product-17560294.html
Some fascinating stuff since much of the focus is high power
broadcasting LF/HF and
Anybody on this list have a Rhombic for 160M?
W1AW used to use one for bulletins and code practice on 160M but I think it
came down years ago (1989?)
I seem to recall pics in CQ of a big California desert DX'er who had what was
essentially a radial array of rhombics for maybe 160M or 80M.
Tim
Tim, A Rhombic for 160 meters would need to be at least 250 feet high on
all four support structures to avoid it being a big cloud warmer. Plus
having 2 wavelengths on each leg makes this taking up a an extraordinary
amount of real estate. The other drawback is that it only one direction
and
Hi Herb and all,
That is true - if you are not going for a vertically polarized Rhombic where
only the center support structures need to be tall. However that calls for
a very good ground system, not only below the antenna but several
wavelengths away. A typical seaside antenna?
73
Len SM7BIC
Anybody on this list have a Rhombic for 160M?
W1AW used to use one for bulletins and code practice on 160M but I think
it came down years ago (1989?)
I seem to recall pics in CQ of a big California desert DX'er who had what
was essentially a radial array of rhombics for maybe 160M or 80M.
Tom,
Why? The same reason guys put up quads. They LOOK very cool! Imagine
standing on one end of the rhombic and saying well, you can't see the end
of the antenna without the binoculars - but it's out that-way somewhere.
73/jeff/ac0c
www.ac0c.com
alpha-charlie-zero-charlie
-Original
Anybody on this list have a Rhombic for 160M?
W1AW used to use one for bulletins and code practice on 160M but I think it
came down years ago (1989?)
I seem to recall pics in CQ of a big California desert DX'er who had what was
essentially a radial array of rhombics for maybe 160M or
People tend to forget that rhombics were originally used for point-to-point
communications with fixed azimuths and distances. While the gain was nice
the real utility was the broadband character of the antennas, especially
when terminated. This allowed the transmit/receive frequencies to be
If we want an antenna just for looks, might as well make it all out of a
non-conductor such as plastic rope. :-)
Seriously, Tom is right. Take time to study his rhombic page. However, as
one wise man once told me, Time spent doing something you enjoy is not
wasted time. Putting up a rhombic might
There were a lot of tall tales told about W6AM's rhombics. Don't base a
desire to have a rhombic on those fables.
And that's where the term California Kilowatt came from. I'm told his
rhombics were loud mostly for that reason. I forget what tubes were in his
amp, but they sure weren't 6V6s. ;-)
Rhombics definitely look cool, but modern antennas definitely outperform them
My favorites:
- four stacked rhombics, (two wide, two high) over a salt marsh in ZC4
this array was replaced by a curtain array, steerable in azimuth and elevation
- a rosette of sloping rhombics occupying one
This is interesting! You did all this, Frank? It would be fascinating to
hear details of how all this worked, especially the curtain array.
73, Mike
www.w0btu.com
On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 1:40 PM, donov...@starpower.net wrote:
- four stacked rhombics, (two wide, two high) over a salt marsh in
Very well said, Rudy. :-)
I think rhombics were sometimes chosen for receiving, because they are a
type of wave antenna like the Beverage but with a sharper pattern. But how
the two compare, I can't say.
73, Mike
www.w0btu.com
On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 12:40 PM, Rudy Severns rseve...@gmail.com
Thanks, Don. I do check real-time lightning maps daily, but I have never
seen this site. I'll have to study it more soon, but it more or less seems
to show what we already know: that lightning can occur in any month.
Based on all the replies so far, it seems that my question falls into the
On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 4:26 PM, ZR z...@jeremy.mv.com wrote:
I would think that with optimized F/R for your Beverages that at least one
path would be somewhat quiet.
They do indeed sometimes help reduce the QRN from some thunderstorms,
particularly if they are in a nearby state (higher
I did not say it was *only* for looks. It also happens to look amazing.
If you are at the ham club and you said hea I just hung up a 160m
rhombic - the next comment guys would say is wow, I would love to see
that.
Big stuff always has a certain sizzle to an observer - no matter what the
And that's where the term California Kilowatt came from. I'm told his
rhombics were loud mostly for that reason. I forget what tubes were in his
amp, but they sure weren't 6V6s. ;-)
When I was bumming around in the 60's, I visited some west coast stations
with large wire antennas with
I think rhombics were sometimes chosen for receiving, because they are a
type of wave antenna like the Beverage but with a sharper pattern. But how
the two compare, I can't say.
Rhombics, because of the many small lobes, have poor directivity. As such,
they are not exceptionally good receiving
They do indeed sometimes help reduce the QRN from some thunderstorms,
particularly if they are in a nearby state (higher angle) and
perpendicular
to the desired direction. But they are only 580' (1λ on 160 and a 3 dB
beamwidth of 90 degrees). And I do have one Beverage that seems to have a
Carl, I based what I said partly on your statements at
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?297870-How-to-design-rhombic-antenna .
Looking back at that page, I see that perhaps I misunderstood your
statements there.
Look at the photos of his shack. If he wasn't running a lot of power, you
would
I need your help on this: Recently my top mast snapped with the passage
of Hurricane Chantal. Amazing the fiberglass three element Tri-band
Cubex Quad survived with the spreaders bent like noodle soup into the
tower guy wires. I took the quad down and decided to restring it since
the #14
Could be. Here's some photos of Don's station, FWIW:
http://www.qsl.net/ne6i/w6am/shack.html . Alpha amplifiers, and huge tall
racks that look like they might require one of those Alphas to drive them.
But who can say for sure? :-)
For whatever reason, there's what seems to be a lot of hype about
Hi Herb,
Dielectric loading causes insulated wire to have a lower velocity factor than
bare wire.
The velocity factor of your particular wire can be determined experimentally.
This is exactly the same as the dielectric loading that occurs when ice covers
our quads and Yagis (I sure you're
All true!
Charlie, K4OTV
-Original Message-
From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
donov...@starpower.net
Sent: Friday, July 26, 2013 8:13 PM
To: topband
Cc: he...@vitelcom.net
Subject: Re: Topband: Somebody mentioned Quads
Hi Herb,
Dielectric loading
W0AIH has a Rhombic, and it is pretty amazing. Mostly used on 20.
Its quieter than the stack, and its louder. Steerable, but NOT
rotateable :-)
Installing one is NOT a simple task. Took Paul a few tries to figure
out how to hang it. Its up about 100 feet, and requires a significant
amount of
The rhombic at W1AW was used on 20 meters IIRC.
Craig K1QX
_
Topband Reflector
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