New Beverage up!

[Dave K6XYZ]

Thanks Tom.....well, I could always make one myself as there is plenty of info available but there is no real reason to get all involved with another project if something is already available.
I've got too many projects all going at the same time as it is.
If anyone else has comments about the DXE Bev....bring them on.

Dave
K6XYZ

[K9ACT]

Hi Jack,

Sounds like a perfect installation at 700' long and 6' high.

Maybe I'm missing somethng, but it's pointed north? and is highly directional. What is north of you besides sparce activity from VE3/4's?

The only thing North of me is the North end of our property and the only possible position for a long Beverage.

The problem is that it is NOT highly directional.  The few stations I have been able to hear due North are included in the conclusion that the dipoles are always better.

  >Being low angle, maybe even the VE3's/4's are too close in to see the low angle advantage. With a ~ 30 degree take-off angle, 400 miles min is when it just starts to play on 75M. (depending on condix)  1,000 to 3,000 miles is even better

I was not aware of the but how bout on 160?

>That said, is it erected anywhere near other metal structures or antennas?

No but it is in second growth forest and the horizontal line is only nominally straight but I have never read anything about the need to be perfectly straight so I took the path of least resistance.

I would be interested in thoughts on steel fence wire which I used.

I recently conducted extensive experiments with my 160 dipole using steel, copper and aluminum.  The conclusion is that the steel is bad news by 10 db and the copper and aluminum are comparable except for the fact that the lighter weight of aluminum allows me to get it 50% higher than the heavier copper.

Considering this, it seems obvious that I should replace the steel wire Bev with aluminum.

Seems like resistivity and permeability would be directly proportional to the length possible making the Bev nearly useless.

BTW, nice hooking up with you the other night.  Big sig into the Midwest.

Jack

[KM1H]

A couple of things about Beverages:

They dont work well over good ground as anyone on the seacoast has found. Im on a rock pile and Ive been using them at 3 locations over the past 40 years. They work great for me.

The Beverage is a slow wave antenna and depends on a tilt of the incoming wave. Steel has high RF resistance and will lay that tilt horizontal and you wind up with just a random piece of wire. The other possibility is the transformer is incorrect; use the one from ON4UN's book, any edition.



If you dont have the room try a Slinky Beverage. I had 5 stretched over 150' and it heard everything that others were hearing with 1000' on 160/80.  Even tho it is plated steel the overall length wasnt enough to kill it and it may have actually helped to tilt the wave down enough to be effective.  Suckers rust out in a few years.  A 150' copper wire with loading coils was useless. I wonder how brass Slinkys would work but they are pricey.

Carl
KM1H

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I've seen big improvements on 160 signals with stations only a few hundred miles away using a Beverage. It depends on the time of day. Propagation is usually at much higher angles before sunset and for a few hours after but then begins to lower. The Beverage should work better as the night progresses. I've seen similar results on 80 meters.

I posted some audio clips in previously. Take a listen. Hearing is believing.


http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=21706.msg155825#msg155825
http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=21784.msg156714#msg156714


If a Beverage doesn't work for you, consider one of the terminated loop types - EWE, Flag, or K9AY. Here's a previous posting with an audio clip showing how the K9AY can improve received signals on 160 meters.

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=18280.msg128044#msg128044

[WU2D]

You have to wonder what is going on with a beverage that is not working. Mine is too high (on purpose for safety to keep it way over the anticipated snow depth), but it still kills my inverted L for signal to noise and it is very directive. Sometimes you hear three signals on the Inverted L and only 1 on the beverage for instance. I do notice that the high beverage (10 -15 feet up) is not as effective as my lower ones in years past have been.

However - I put up an 80M inverted Vee pretty far back away from the house and about 50 feet into the woods, and I can honestly say that the inv v dipole is approaching or possibly beating the beverage in signal to noise performance in the narrow band that it is cut for.  So it is more the idea of getting the antenna away from the house that is the big win. Of course the beverage is broad banded.

Mike WU2D