Peter Hendra wrote in
:

Seriously though, I am truly appreciative of your advice in this and
all matters. What you say about backstay aerials makes sense and I
shall do as you suggest. What I would really like, as do most others,
is long range voice comms. If anything reasonable helps in any way, I
will do it. There is nothing quite so annoying as to not be able to
receive an interpretable weather fax because of poor reception.


Whatever else you can do to move as much of the suspended metal away from
the radiating antenna element is of most importance in creating more
field strength at the remote receiver.

When Geoffrey first got Lionheart, the mainmast backstay on the ketch
goes from the rear of the center cockpit right up in parallel with the
boom lift, which WAS a stainless steel cable attached to the mast. If
the boat were close hauled, that cable was only a couple of feet from the
radiating backstay and just sucked the signal the transmitter was putting
out right out of the air. We replaced it with a proper, non-conductive,
line and got rid of the mainsail problem. It matters not where the main
is sheeted to the transmission, now.

I also made the backstay antenna BIGGER, longer, with a capacitor hat
top, because I find we use the lower HF frequencies more often. The
triattic between the masts was insulated fore and aft making a flat top
insulated wire. I insisted on the highest voltage insulators because at
the top end of every HF antenna, no matter what frequency you are on,
there is no current, only very high voltage at the top. I then added a
small cable from the upper end of the insulated backstay antenna (below
the upper insulator, of course) to the center of the triattic right above
it, creating a longer antenna with a capacitor hat top.

http://www.cebik.com/gp/cp-th.html
Notice the radiation pattern graph on this webpage of a vertical dipole,
a 1/4 wave vertical against a ground plane (that ocean ground we want)
and how the radiation pattern is much more HORIZONTAL, out towards that
remote station we are trying to contact, with the addition of the
triattic capacitor hat. Anything we can do to lower the vertical's too-
high radiation angle will make our signal much stronger out over the
horizon as it will lower the angle of attack on the ionosphere.

I've been playing with antennas since I was 10. I've been burned playing
with antennas since I was 11....the day the first ham transmitter was
operated...(c; That was 1957...a great year for ham radio at the peak of
the sunspot cycle maximum.

Larry W4CSC - proof positive RF ISN'T hazardous to your health.
I'm still being burned playing with antennas...(c;
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