Re: [IRCA] Antennas for receiving...

["Neil Kazaross" <neilkaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All the antennas mentioned are cardioid patterned antennas with nice wide 
back nulls but also a very wide main beam. You can expect the pickup at 
90/270 to be only about 5 1/2 to 5 3/4 dB down from the direction of max 
pickup. These are good antennas to null stations from one specific general 
direction. If you phase one of them vs a small antenna ( I used mini-BOGs) 
for the purpose of phase enhancing the back null, you can increase the back 
null depth from about 25 to over 50 dB and all but super locals can be 
eliminated if located near the back null.

A cardioid antenna is a very good complement to a loop antenna since the 
loop antenna with its figure 8 pattern is not suited to receiving stations 
that are close to 180 degrees apart which is where the cardioid antenna 
excels. Cardioid antenna also have pretty good low angle pickup.

EWE's are fine, although I have never used one. You will need a good ground 
connection and I'm not sure how easy that will be to achieve and maintain in 
CO. You may prefer a KAZ antenna or a Conti Superloop (bottom corner fed 
flag) and I believe, (never tested, but my KAZ's worked fine when there was 
so much sag in the bottom wire (return line as Gil called it) that it 
touched the ground) that both the KAZ and the Super Loop can work with that 
wire fully on the ground to avoid tripping.

A 10 x 40 ft KAZ may not have as much signal as many will want, so I'd make 
it a bit bigger. My initial KAZ (for test purposes) was a 10 x 40 and I had 
to DX with the R8A's preamp on, especially on the low end. Noting I logged 
rarely reported Costa Rica on 530 mixing with RVC here in IL, I have to say 
that I had enough gain, but still feel that most would prefer something like 
15 x 60. I used a 18.5 x 66.5 foot KAZ aimed south phased with a // mini-BOG 
of about 100 ft to absolutely phase eliminate Milwaukee pests to my north 
and had all signal I ever needed.

Once I discovered real BOGs here, I obsoleted that KAZ setups since I could, 
thru phasing get just about as good a back null, but had much less side 
pickup..ie often 20dB+ nulls near 90/270. The southward KAZ // mini-BOG were 
replaced by a terminated 292 ft BOG due south // an unterm one 155 ft due 
South (unterm bcuz I didn't want a ground rod in the middle of my back 
yard). As an example, I used to get WBIN from TN at night thru KXEL. WBIN is 
listed 4w at night, but even if they were running 1 kW day rig, I couldn't 
come close to doing this with the KAZ as I had too much KXEL to begin with 
prior to phasing. But for BOG's you really needn't think about them unless 
you have 100 yards available in a straight line.

So to summarize, by all means use a couple cardioid antennas for a couple 
different directions and for sure use PHASING to enhance back nulls very 
deeply and also to null other pests.

73 KAZ
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gil Stacy" <gilstacy@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America" 
<irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2008 6:16 PM
Subject: Re: [IRCA] Antennas for receiving...


> Chris,
>
> The advantage the ewe has over the others that you listed is that it
> functions quite well without an elevated return line.  The rest require an
> elevated return line (front yard trip wire).  I have tried a return line 
> on
> a ewe connecting the ground rods, but didn't notice any difference in
> performance.  The downside of these antennas is a fat cardoid pattern with
> poor side rejection.  However, where space is a consideration, they are 
> hard
> to beat, and are considerably more quiet and directional than a random 
> wire.
>
> 73 Gil
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