I'd like to find some kind of happy medium as I'd like to work europe 
sometimes on 40 meters when greyline kicks in. 80 is going to be 
predominently local and maybe one or two zl contacts here and there 
anyway, so not too fussed about 80.

Shaun
web sites:
http://www.myspace.com/blindmanshaunoliver
http://blindman.homelinux.org/~blindman/
skype: brailledude


On 26/03/2008 8:58 AM, the old scribe known as Fred Olver was able to 
impart this pearl of wisdom:
> I must admit, I haven't been following this thread, however I'd like to put 
> my two cents in here as well. My own experience is that antenna height is 
> more critical for frequencies above 50 megahertz than for say the HF bands. 
> I can remember using a Mini-Quad at about ten feet, actually going out in to 
> the backyard in order to turn the antenna which was mounted on the corner of 
> a deck and working Europe on 15 and 20 meters. Of course when I was using an 
> ATB34 at about 45 feet, of course the signal strength was much better and I 
> was able to hear and work many more countries. On frequencies above 50 MHZ 
> the use of directional antennas sometimes becomes obnoxious when working 
> distant repeaters because of the possibility of bringing up three or four at 
> the same time. Sometimes it can't be helped. I remember over Thanksgiving 
> one year, might have been 1984 or 1987 when two meters was open from the 
> midwest all the way to Alaska. I worked a mountain-top repeater in West 
> Virginia with an HT. Believe me, that was phenomenal. Generally though, if 
> you're working distant stations above 50 MHZ you need a directional antenna, 
> because even if you are say on an HT, it is amazing what a building between 
> you and the repeater can do to a signal, and this becomes much more evident 
> on 440 megahertz than 2 meters and if you['re working in the 1,200 megahertz 
> band you just about need to be pointing right at each other in order to hear 
> the other station, that's what I've been told any way. By the way, if you're 
> using a Ringo Ranger at about 20 or 25 feet, that's plenty high enough. You 
> don't want to be interfering with stations 50-60 miles away when it's more 
> than 40 feet off the ground, or just reduce your output power, because if 
> your antenna is 40 or more feet up you won't need more than probably five 
> watts to be heard locally.
> 
> Fred Olver N9BSO 
> 
> 
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