[IRCA] Wellbrook versus Beverage comparisons

[Chuck Hutton <charlesh3@xxxxxxx>]

Nick Hall-Patch had his ALA-100 array at Grayland with myself and Bruce Portzer Oct. 3 and 4. During that period, we compared it with a 1400' Beverage at 320 degrees that was terminated via 3 six foot ground rods. A different antenna than a 600' Beverage, to be sure.
 
It was no contest at all according to Nick. The Beverage was in a league by itself. Perhaps Nick can provide details if needed.
 
The Beverage provided Chinese adio on at least 111 channels, and there are some recordings still in the can that I have not checked. 
 
 
 
Chuck
 
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On Nov. 3 John Bryant wrote: 
 
Kaz,

<CLIP>

I'm just amazed at the progress in antenna design that has been made, mostly by Andy and Wellbrook, but also some others working on their own and Dallas Lankford teaming up with Guy Atkins. The first step in this whole revolution was the growing appreciation of large, broadband single turned loops, vertically, as antennas. The Wellbrook ALA100, still an exceptional antenna, was one of the prominent commercial versions of that movement. The advantage in noise rejection, relatively small footprint and relative stealthiness made it a real winner for DXers on small urban and suburban lots. Its classic wide figure-of-8 pattern was an advantage in many applications and a weakness only for DXers desiring either much narrower lobes or a cardoid, uni-directional pattern (or both). I'd guess that the ALA100 will be a staple in Wellbrook's lineup for many years to come. 

As phasing developed over the years, most of the work (Misek, Connelly) focused on combining signals from two long wire antennas, usually Beverages until the last decade, or so. Most phasers were also designs that required at least tweaking at each frequency of interest. DXers did and still do amazing things with that technology. Three things excited me about Andy's original phased array: a) the fact that it was broadband, basically allowing the DXer to "set and forget" b) the fact that it was based on two small ALA100 loops, excellent antennas themselves, arranged in a fairly small footprint and c) that it was reversible with the flick of a switch. One array of two loops could cover the horizon, but two pairs (N, S, E, W) cloudy really cover the horizon. I loved that array and found that it equaled or surpassed the short 600' and 900' Beverages that I routinely deploy at Grayland. That original ALA-100 Array is still the best antenna in some limited situations, IMHO. That i!
 s the antenna that I've used for the past 30 months or so and I still love it.
  		 	   		  
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