Hi David Yes, I use RBN for comparisons these days . . . often get reports from US stations of more than 35dB over the noise! And obviously it's quite easy, when some other British stations are on, to look at their reports and compare.
And over the decades, I have done lots of comparisons, which is obviously much easier on SSB. About 25 years ago I was one of a group of stations who had skeds on SSB every morning for a whole year on 160 with a group of ZL and VKs . . . all the others had BIG verticals (two had full-sized quarter waves) . . . they were all amazed that I was consistently one of the strongest signals. (even though I was running less than half the power of most of them!) Apart from the lack of space for radials, if I had a Vertical I'd want it to be at least 80ft tall . . . and as I live in an ordinary street, I think the neighbours would object! However . . . propagation is completely different on 80m. DX is nearly always low-angle . . . so without a good vertical your reports will always be way down. So your idea for 80m is probably a good one. Roger G3YRO -----Original Message----- From: David Cutter [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 07 June 2018 18:58 To: 'Roger Kennedy'; [email protected] Subject: RE: Topband: Effect of Ground on a Dipole Roger I wondered if you'd considered the inverted L with a folded counterpoise ala K2AV. I'm seriously considering this with the 80m option for my very limited garden and another site. When doing your comparisons, do you use the RBN? Sorry, can't comment on your soil conductivity query. David G3UNA -----Original Message----- From: Topband [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Roger Kennedy Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2018 1:45 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Topband: Effect of Ground on a Dipole Well I did try an Inverted-L at one previous QTH Mike, but it was no better for DX than my Dipole. The trouble is that at this QTH I could never get a decent enough radial system to make an Inverted-L work properly, as I don't have the space. (My dipole goes outside my own property, but it's high in the air!) But the other reason I stick with my Dipole is because I find that my DX Signal on 160m (around the world) compares pretty well with other British stations who use Verticals. (I have always put this down to the fact that on Top Band most DX is fairly high angle, unlike on 80m) I was hoping that more people would comment on my query that if typical Soil Conductivity is as bad as recently posted on here, a dipole isn't really that low above "ground", if the ground is so poor! (this is also why I think most computer modelling programs are so bad at showing how 160m antennas work) Roger G3YRO ------------------------------------------------------------ Roger, you should try an Inverted-L. :-) http://www.w0btu.com/160_meters.html 73, Mike www.w0btu.com _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
