Welcome to NEW ZEALAND. Land of the long white cloud.
Located in the south western corner of the Pacific Ocean, 1000 miles south east of Australia, New Zealand is the same size of Great Britain or Italy with a population of just four and half million. The country is clean & green, six Cities house 90 percent of the population, while the rest live in the country like me. 45 million sheep & 5 million cattle help fill the vacant spaces. Huge amounts of dairy, meat, fruit.
If you decide to come and visit New Zealand or do a 'self drive around tour' which I 'highly recomend', then you are most welcome to park your mobile camper on my scenic parking Deck with outstanding views and stay as long as you like. From here you can DX to your hearts content and rest up !!!!!!!
This blog is the result of reading Les Moxon's book "H F Antennas for all Locations". A detailed complex book full of compelling reading for the Antenna DIY person. A few of his comments got me thinking. In one chapter he mentions using Terrain Gain to boost his signal power for "Down Under" contacts using 10 watts and a inverted vee antenna. Moxon, an English Ham explained how local Terrain gain he found near ground level, helped play a major role in his low power contacts with Ian. VK3MO from Australia.
After reading Moxon's compelling book several times, I wondered if further enhanced signal zones existed above the near ground level ones Moxon found. Moxon explained what to look out for when looking for natural forming terrain gain and methods of extraction for ham radio use. It all looked simple enough to me, so I decided to test the idea using a Rotary Aray with vertical height system. I found a interesting site that fitted all the rules according Moxon's terrain theory which allowed European QRP contacts off the mobile. So at this site I decided to check for further signal enhancements using a 2E beam. I peaked the signal direction, then adjusted the Array's vertical height while watching my S meter for any variance. By the way the site is Coastal, has 180 degree Ocean to Horizon views and forward slope of 35degrees to the Ocean below.
Results from testing indicated a 12 dB peak existed at 11.7 meters above ground level above those received at the terminal height of 22 meters and those at ground level. Another peak was noted round 17 meters, but was slightly down on the peak at 11.7 m. I checked these results again, this time using a 1 element Quad loop, same results appeared again. The lower reading being spectactular to say the least. I have since built my Ham shack here along with a home made Tower and 5E mono bander on top. Photos above etc results have been well worth the effort.
During the testing phase, the two enhanced signal zones found, tapered off sharply as I slowly passed the testing rig through them, like passing through an enhanced signal zone. This strong signal zone appeared to be less than two meters in vertical thickness, a noticable signal drop off either side. Up until now, I didnt know about naturally inhanced signal zones like this, or why they are formed.
Since discovering & using this natural medium, I now fully prescribe to custom Antenna height adjustment. Testing equipment required. its Free !!!!! just use a Web SDR Receiver's on TX, and your own S meter on receive!!!!
This radical but simple idea should be applied to all sites, city or country. The SWL listener can adjust his antenna for enhanced results along the same lines precribed above, using his S meter as a reference point. Any questions, ideas, or results, just email me. The results offer gain on both TX & RC as against TX only gain from using a linear
Happy DXing.use
73's ZL2JB
ALL EMAIL's most welcome ~~~~~~ zlhamster@gmail.com
Station equipment:- Home made 12m, 4 section square Tower with electric lift, hardline feeder. feader loss 0.65 Db, inline vector monitoring with audio SWR alarm. TX audio by Heil DX head set, TX Audio compression set at 10db. Noise proof shack using black studio felt. OM 3500A amp, Icom 7700, Icom R1000 for diveresity reception, 20M 5 element mono bander, shunt feed tower, other wire HF antennas, Quads on 2 & 6m on second 10 m tower Antenna ratation vai base mounted HD rotation worm drive gearbox unit, home made system, drives steel 65mm drive tube to top of tower with large flip over flange on top this supports 20ft under boom steel brace, which intern supports main 20m beam with its 40ft boom. This additional boom suport reduces side flex and possible antenna break-up in high winds. Direction indication via video link, emergency power via a honda 7KVA generator. Extensive close in Tower earthing and large ground radial system covering 2 acres, wired in star, tower to earth .85 ohms. 40 earth stakes used. Tower mounted weather measurement system by Davis, high wind Alarm set at 70 KPH. highest speed recored 188 KPH. and yes antenna reduced to scrap.
