Antenna comment

[Jim Danehy]

You can be a mile high (5,280’) on a plateau that goes for many miles. That still is FLAT LAND as far as a TAKE OFF ANGLE.
What counts is the IMMEDIATE SLOPE of the land underneath the antenna. The first 1000 + feet is critical. The FIRST BOUNCE to the IONOSPHERE is the criterion for a DX LOCATION. My current location IMMEDIATELY slopes from 800 feet to 400 feet for a mile. That occurs near major tributaries. The River has taken millions of years to shove the ground away and cut a path for the water to flow. That creates hills

Back in the late 1970s I operated the CQ WW SSB Contest as a mobile station. One hundred watts and an 8 foot whip. I parked at 800 feet above Sea Level and looked directly down on the Ohio River 400 feet down. In 2 days during the daylight hours I worked 76 DXCC entities. Results in 1976 CQ Magazine I think it was.

High up in the mountains is not sufficient  if you don’t have an IMMEDIATE DROP OFF that slopes downward. That is known as the take off angle.

A station in Barbados (8P6) asked me : “what you got in that car a Henry 2K” ?
Some things you don’t forget.

73
Jim W9VNE

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[John Langdon]

John, NT5C (now SK) was a very smart guy, and well educated in both geology and electromagnetics.  He searched for his QTH via deed and terrain records, and the first screen was "must drain into 2 or more watersheds".  He found a killer spot with gently sloping foreground in almost all directions.  He went from an SWL to the Honor Roll in record time.

73 John N5CQ

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Jim Danehy
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2020 4:47 AM
To: Elecraft Mailing List <[hidden email]>
Subject: [Elecraft] Antenna comment

You can be a mile high (5,280’) on a plateau that goes for many miles. That still is FLAT LAND as far as a TAKE OFF ANGLE.
What counts is the IMMEDIATE SLOPE of the land underneath the antenna. The first 1000 + feet is critical. The FIRST BOUNCE to the IONOSPHERE is the criterion for a DX LOCATION. My current location IMMEDIATELY slopes from 800 feet to 400 feet for a mile. That occurs near major tributaries. The River has taken millions of years to shove the ground away and cut a path for the water to flow. That creates hills

Back in the late 1970s I operated the CQ WW SSB Contest as a mobile station. One hundred watts and an 8 foot whip. I parked at 800 feet above Sea Level and looked directly down on the Ohio River 400 feet down. In 2 days during the daylight hours I worked 76 DXCC entities. Results in 1976 CQ Magazine I think it was.

High up in the mountains is not sufficient  if you don’t have an IMMEDIATE DROP OFF that slopes downward. That is known as the take off angle.

A station in Barbados (8P6) asked me : “what you got in that car a Henry 2K” ?
Some things you don’t forget.

73
Jim W9VNE

Sent from my iPhone
______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

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Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [hidden email]
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