Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-21 Thread Tom W8JI
The HI-Z was erected quite aways from anything else which involved bushwhacking and clearing the entire circle, trenching almost 1200 feet of feedline etc so there was a lot of sweat work done on that project. But on 160 and 80 where I have the tx antennas to use as a comparison, the

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-18 Thread JC
: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of David Raymond Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2014 1:01 AM To: Don Moman VE6JY; Topband@Contesting. Com Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z My experience is similar to Don's outlined below. Both gain and noise figure are important

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-17 Thread Terry Posey
Bravo, John! Well stated on all points. No disparaging comments noted. I especially appreciate your discussion of RDF and what it actually means in practice. As you commented, in practice, RDF is calculated (EZNEC, etc.) assuming equal amplitude distribution of noise over all 3D free space.

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-17 Thread Lee K7TJR
here. Lee K7TJR -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Terry Posey Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2014 7:57 AM To: 'John Kaufmann'; topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z Bravo, John! Well stated on all points

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-17 Thread Richard (Rick) Karlquist
All this discussion about RDF overlooks the issue of polarization. If you make an array of verticals with a certain RDF (assuming noise comes from all directions uniformly), the array will be better than an individual vertical by the RDF factor. However, what I have found is that a horizontally

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-17 Thread John Kaufmann
: Wednesday, December 17, 2014 3:19 PM To: Lee K7TJR; 'Terry Posey'; 'John Kaufmann'; topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z All this discussion about RDF overlooks the issue of polarization. If you make an array of verticals with a certain RDF (assuming noise comes from all

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-17 Thread JC
N4IS JC -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of John Kaufmann Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2014 8:59 PM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z Good points about polarization. If the signals and/or noise

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-17 Thread JC
with polarization rotation is providing return in new countries for him. Regards JC N4IS -Original Message- From: JC [mailto:n...@comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2014 1:02 PM To: 'Tom W8JI'; 'Lee K7TJR'; 'Bob Tabke'; 'topband@contesting.com' Subject: RE: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z Hi guys

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-17 Thread Don Moman VE6JY
Kaufmann Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2014 8:59 PM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z Good points about polarization. If the signals and/or noise are polarized predominantly in one state, then RDF may not be a good predictor of SNR performance

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-17 Thread David Raymond
, December 17, 2014 10:53 PM Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z Well I disagree that gain isn't important. Maybe you topbanders in the better areas of propagation can afford to throw away many db to get a better rdf, but that sure isn't the case up here in mid-northern VE6 land. I have numerous

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-17 Thread Jeff Blaine
- From: David Raymond Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2014 12:00 AM To: Don Moman VE6JY ; Topband@Contesting. Com Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z My experience is similar to Don's outlined below. Both gain and noise figure are important in very low noise environments. In my own case, I

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-16 Thread Tom W8JI
To: 'Tom W8JI' w...@w8ji.com; 'Bob Tabke' b...@onehorsecreek.com; topband@contesting.com Sent: Monday, December 15, 2014 11:09 PM Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z The primary difference between DXE and Hi-Z 8 circle arrays is the fact that Hi-Z uses ALL 8 verticals actively

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-16 Thread Joel Harrison
Greetings Bob Reflector folks, Please allow me to provide a bit of my experience since I run both a broad side/end fire passive 8 vertical array (350 ft diameter) with a DXE controller AND a HiZ 8 vertical array spaced for 160 meters (220 ft diameter). To your specific question about

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-16 Thread Greg Zenger
This thread comes at a good time for me, as I am planning an 8 circle array as we speak. My installation will be an 84' diameter circle as I intend to us it on both 160 and 80m. My installation will be in the woods on a rocky hill (New England glacial moraine). I have found a plateau near the

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-16 Thread Jim Brown
On Tue,12/16/2014 6:35 AM, Joel Harrison wrote: Please allow me to provide a bit of my experience since I run both a broad side/end fire passive 8 vertical array (350 ft diameter) with a DXE controller AND a HiZ 8 vertical array spaced for 160 meters (220 ft diameter). Thanks for a great post,

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-16 Thread JC
, December 16, 2014 7:52 AM To: Lee K7TJR; 'Bob Tabke'; topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z Lee, We probably will just have to disagree about this. From my viewpoint, the behavior isn't too much different than a big yagi stack or other antennas we are used to. The size

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-16 Thread Lee K7TJR
! Lee K7TJR -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Tom W8JI Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2014 4:52 AM To: Lee K7TJR; 'Bob Tabke'; topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z Lee, We probably will just have to disagree

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-16 Thread bruce whitney via Topband
@contesting.com Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2014 9:42 AM Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z Just to correct a typo, my HiZ 8 vertical array is spaced 200 ft, no 220 ft. Greetings Bob Reflector folks, Please allow me to provide a bit of my experience since I run both a broad side

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-16 Thread John Kaufmann
A few comments based on my own experience with various receiving arrays: Circle diameter of the Hi-Z array: A circle diameter of 200 feet is specified for the Hi-Z 8-circle array on 160m. In fact, I have found that there is nothing magic about 200 feet. It happens to be a good compromise

Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-15 Thread Bob Tabke
I'm new to 160 and am planning to add an 8-circle. I would like to buy commercial preamps and the controller. I would greatly appreciate any advice on the choice of preamp/controller vendor. I live in a rural area and have a 4-direction 3-ele vertical array for 160 with a 20+ dB f/b. So I'm

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-15 Thread Tom W8JI
- DXE wants a 320' diameter and Hi-Z wants 200' for optimum performance. It's hard to tell what DXE performance is because it does not disclose RDF, beam width or F/B. And neither vendor supplies EZNEC files so I can see the effect of varying the layout. So I'm not sure how to decide what

Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z

2014-12-15 Thread Lee K7TJR
. All 8 element arrays do NOT work the same way. Lee K7TJR -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Tom W8JI Sent: Monday, December 15, 2014 7:24 PM To: Bob Tabke; topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: 8 circle: DXE vs Hi-Z - DXE