Re: [IRCA] BOG wire (long Bevs..etc etc)

["Neil Kazaross" <neilkaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Everything I will state here(until the near end) is for elevated normal 
Beverages, rather than BOGs.

I ran 6600 feet in Narrangansett (near Twin Willows) about 25 years ago. 
1300 feet at about 205 degrees (my normal Bev there) followed by about 300 
feet west crossing an adandoned railroad track and then 4000 feet straight 
at 205 degrees down the right side of the track followed by 1000 feet 
curving out to about 215 degrees since the track curved slightly.

At night on a normal non AU night Cuba on 1140 was beating up WRVA due to 
narrow beam. This was not common on normal 1300 ft Bev and Cuba barely noted 
far u/WRVA on loop. F/B seemed great on some freqs. Cuba on 1290 clearly 
atop Providence at night.

A daytime check of 730 had no trace of WJTO off the back (wire NOT 
terminated) and only very weak WACE off the side. 25 feet of lead in wire 
had WJTO atop and fine.

In Nfld I've extended the normal 3200 ft eastern Brazil Bev to 5000 feet a 
couple of times and not noted this weird F/B effect. I think it may have 
been a bit superior on extremely low end for Brazil, but not at all better 
than 3200 feet for any freqs above 650. Many times in NF I have compared 
3200 feet to 1400-1500 feet parallel and even on the high end where the long 
Bev is at least 5 wavelengths long it is somewhat superior. The long Bev may 
have a funky side lobe or two on a few freqs, but so can the shorter one, 
and the longer one gets high band Brazialians with less QRM from more 
westerly S Am due to somewhat more narrow beam. ie we always were sure, very 
sure, that it was worth the considerable extra work to add the extra 
1700-1800 feet to our main Brazil antenna.

I tried 5000 feet in RI once also (didnt have enough wire to go 6600 feet 
down the track, and it didn't have the same weird F/B effects as 6600 feet 
?!?) but worked fine.  I tried 5200 feet in California once and was 
unconvinced that it was any better than the 3600 feet I commonly used aimed 
about 70 degrees. (Cincy on 1360 from Northern San Diego with San Diego 
phase nulled is a decent catch I think !!)

My tests in Wisconsin show that 1100 feet is a bit long for a BOG (wire 
directly on ground) as it gets rather lossy and patterns start to degrade. 
Even 900 feet is pushing the limit, and from what I've seen there and here 
in IL, very high end patterns may degrade with more than 600 feet at times.

In Calif, my 3600 foot Bev was a near BOG for much of the length as it was 
draped over chapperal and low lying grasses and at times only a few inches 
above the ground. Yet it worked great ! When one gets directly on the ground 
things start to change as the velocity of propagation drops seriously and 
ground losses increase greatly. The ground under a BOG may have a major 
effect, so if you use one, you may find different results and if you have 
1000+ feet, you want to test a BOG vs a classic elevated Bev. Don't be 
fooled when the Bev has 12-15 dB more signal as it is directivity and F/B 
that you are looking for. I don't think BOGs work very well on top of ground 
with an extremely high water table, for example.

73 KAZ


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America" 
<irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, March 04, 2006 9:02 PM
Subject: Re: [IRCA] BOG wire


>> Dennis, I used number 28 copper magnetic wire for distances over 2000
>> ft (one time 7700 ft) in Utah with no problem back in the 1980's
>
> How well did it work?
>
> Everything I've heard about super long wire antennas like that says they
> work great, but in a *very* narrow beam.  I vaguely remember reading of 
> one
> of those, perhaps in Australia.  It was possible to hear a 1kw in Costa
> Rica, but that's *all* it ever heard on that frequency - and it was a
> regular.
>
> Craig Healy
> Providence, RI
>
>
> 

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