Hi Stan There are two very important numbers to consider, first is horizontal or vertical, the horizontal signal is zero at ground level and maximum at 1.5 wave length height , vertical signal is maximum at ground level and minimum at 1.5 wave high. The second is the gain, the local noise limits the gain, if you are on a very quiet location bigger loops can dig weaker signal out of the noise.
Vertical WF can be small, 6 or 8m are common, you only need a low noise preamplifier 2db or better, gain is not important , 20 db external gain is enough on 160m. Horizontal is more challenging you need a < 1db NF. I am working on a project using two SDR receivers to phase the loops by software, it should be possible to reduce the size of the boom. But not the height necessary because the limitation is the horizontal receiver signal intensity. For horizontal average performance on 160m it is necessary 20 m above the ground, 10m high for 80m. Good performance on 160m it is necessary 30 to 40 m above ground, and it shows no limitation on performance. Higher is always better. Check vertical W8VVW (8m) WF or WX4D ( 10m) original WF. Regards JC N4IS -----Original Message----- From: Topband <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Stan Stockton Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2018 2:15 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Topband: Waller Flag I am curious to know if anyone on here has scaled a Waller Flag to a smaller antenna and had any success with whatever might be available for preamps to bring the gain up enough to start to hear band noise. At my location on Cayman Brac I could probably get by with a 20 foot boom but not much larger. According to my model, one with a 50 foot boom is about -48 dB, one with a 30 foot boom is about -65 dB and one with a 20 foot boom, like I would lilke to put up, is about -79 dB. I guess a lot to do with how successful the antenna might work for me will have to do with how much preamplifier gain I will need at my particular location to start to hear noise. I wanna use it on 160, 80 and 40 and the gain of the 20 foot boom one is enough for 80 and 40 using a 30 or 40 dB preamp. Any help would be appreciated. 73 and Merry Christmas...Stan, K5GO/ZF9CW _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
