I wrote an article for QST some years back entitled "Bidirectional Antennas for Field Day," which subsequently appeared in ARRL's "Wire Antenna Classics" and RSGB's "International Antenna Collection" books. James is concerned about "interference" from Los Angeles stations while trying to work Virginia, but I submit that W6 QSOs count just as much as W4 QSOs do (Four-landers will likely disagree), and there are thousands of available QSOs to be made to the west, if only your signal level to the west is not attenuated by the front-to-back ratio of a Yagi or Quad. By giving up a half S-Unit in signal in Virginia (no big deal), and adding several S-Units to the west by having gain, not attenuation via a Yagi's F/R ratio, a Midwesterner's score will be the benefactor.
Wichita is the ideal location for a bidirectional beam, and I hope James avails himself of his location, one hop from either coast, through the use of a suitable bidirectional array.
I sent a note to James regarding this issue.
ReplyDeleteI wrote an article for QST some years back entitled "Bidirectional Antennas for Field Day," which subsequently appeared in ARRL's "Wire Antenna Classics" and RSGB's "International Antenna Collection" books. James is concerned about "interference" from Los Angeles stations while trying to work Virginia, but I submit that W6 QSOs count just as much as W4 QSOs do (Four-landers will likely disagree), and there are thousands of available QSOs to be made to the west, if only your signal level to the west is not attenuated by the front-to-back ratio of a Yagi or Quad. By giving up a half S-Unit in signal in Virginia (no big deal), and adding several S-Units to the west by having gain, not attenuation via a Yagi's F/R ratio, a Midwesterner's score will be the benefactor.
Wichita is the ideal location for a bidirectional beam, and I hope James avails himself of his location, one hop from either coast, through the use of a suitable bidirectional array.
73 de Chip Margelli, K7JA