Above is the view to the east. North-east to Europe will be up to the left. Straight out to the east gets me across the Atlantic to Central Africa.
Here is the view looking south. All of South America is down there, followed by Antarctica. Then up an around the pole to Sumatra and Borneo. I can hear the Indonesians quite well on 15 SSB.
Looking west. Central America, then lots of Pacific Ocean all the way to Western Australia. I have worked VK6JMS who is in the nothern part of Western Australia, in "The Kimberly."
Here is the view to the north-west. You can see how the top floor of our building blocks most of the signals from the U.S. and Canada when the antenna is at the terrace level (where it is now).
I think I will stick with simple 1/4 wave verticals. There is a lot of wind up here and we are not in the apartment about half the year. I wouldn't want a Hex Beam to get blow over, especially when we are not here. Simplicity is a virtue. I think I can get the antenna above the top floor of our building by mounting it (base of the antenna near the top) on the support beam (for a sun shade) shown here. This should greatly improve signals to and from North America. And I could easily take it down before we leave without having to climb up onto the roof.
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Fiberglass telescopic masts (army surplus) with a double zepp antenna fed with an open Feedline and a balanced tuner (old Johnson matchbox). Or a 30 / 40 ft telescopic pole (fishing rod) with radials and grounding. Use an home brew matching unit at the base or splurge for a remote end fed antenna ATU...
ReplyDeleteBTW with the vertical you might pick up a lot of QRM so you might want to build a magnetic loop for RX.
ReplyDeleteSounds reasonable Bill. Wind is a formidable antenna foe. A simple vertical survived 95 KM/h gusts here in Germany. My neighbor's 14 MHz beam ended up in his next door neighbors pool and pearced the pool liner. That cost him $$$
ReplyDeleteBernt