Antenna Height?

[nat19]

I live at the bottom of a mountain and I ran my antenna up about 400 feet or about half way up the mountain. My antenna is a maco 5/8 and is currently 16 feet to the feed point. If I move the antenna up, buy up I mean higher in the air not further up the mountain,so that the feed point is 36 feet will I notice any difference in receive and transmit.

 

[W5LZ]

You might see some difference. I don't think I'd expect a huge difference, but there would be some.
That 36 feet isn't some kind of 'magic' number for antenna height. Plus of minus a few feet either way just isn't a biggy. I can say that if you are running something like 400 - 450 feet of feed line to reach that antenna, you'd be better off binging it back down closer to the radio. Cutting that distance in half will make more difference than raising the antenna to 30 something feet where it's at.
- 'Doc

 

[nat19]

Ok so maybe I should bring it back down closer. But I still wonder why everyone says to have your antenna at least 36 feet to the feed point. Can someone explain that?

 

[928bolo]

11 meters = 36 feet which is one full wavelength.

If you are using a vertical antenna for line of site (local) communications, the higher the better. If you are using a horizontal antenna or want to work DX, take a look at this link. http://www.arrl.org/files/file/antplnr.pdf

If you are feeding this antenna 400ft of RG-58 coax most of your power is lost in the feedline (about 11% efficient, 9.6db loss, at 28mhz). Try this calculator Attenuation & Power Handling Calculator

 

[nat19]

I am using ladder line to feed the antenna. I can talk localy 30 to 50 miles using 20 watts so I am not doing that bad. Before I put my antenna on the hill I could talk maybe 10 to 12 miles. Thats with the same antenna and same radio. I am having trouble talking locally over the hill that the antenna is on. For example about 5 miles behind that hill I talk to one of the locals and sometimes I have trouble hearing him but on the side my antenna is on, I can talk in that direction for up to 50 miles. As far as talking skip I have talked all over the U.S. and made a few contacts in Canada. As far as moving the antenna closer to the house I am not going to do that because I did notice a big difference on how far I can talk locally when I moved it up the hill. I still wonder if I moved the feed point from 16 feet to 36 feet how much of a difference would I notice.

 

[nat19]

Anyone? If I move the feed point up from 16 to 36 feet am I going to notice that big of a difference. thanks in advance!

 

[Robb]

If you have the materials and the time to move it up to 36 ft - then let us know if you see any improvements when you do it.
Look at it as an experiment...

 

[nat19]

I may do that some time in the near future and let you guys know how it turns out. I know that the antenna is the most important part of the setup so I wan't to make sure it is as good as I can get it. Lately I have been thinking about adding around 200 watts of power to my setup, but I would rather put that money into improving my antenna if I knew it would help some. If possible I would like to do both!! If any one else has any opinions feel free to share them.