Has anyone used a V-Quad base antenna and how good are they

[C2]

About the polarization of signals. They usually start out as the same polarization as that of the antenna.

Sounds good to me.

That signal's polarization can be chnaged by reflection (change in direction) from the ionosphere.

Uh huh

But since a signals poalarization is determined by it's most characteristic 'direction' as a 'whole'...

Huh? :welcome roll that by me again :?:

the polarization of a 'skywave' tends to stay the same until the signal as a whole is reflected by something.

But that is what I meant. You don't know how many hops, or what the originating polarization was for that matter, but even if you did, I can't say that the H. beam from a thousand miles away shooting at me will be received as horizontal, can I?

PS - What the "Ceeb" (Mr. Cebik) says...

I like to use his information as a good starting basis and I think it makes for good comparisons whithin his contexts. I believe most of his stuff is just modeled and not based on real world data, but that is true of just about everything there I have looked at. So, when his results say that a 4 element beam has more gain than a 3 element beam, that relative comparison is probably generally true in the real world too, although I would not expect to see the same absolute gain figures.

 

[freecell]

"and since I can see something looking like wires." i see one wire running horizontally across the top of the pic and it doesn't belong to any of those elements. also the telltale "bowing" of the elements that normally occurs in a v-quad loop configuration is not present. if anyone can see a single wire between the top ends of any of those elements please let me know.

"You are absolutely correct, I've never used one."
you know what you can do with your class c information.

"I can't say that the H. beam from a thousand miles away shooting at me will be received as horizontal, can I?"

you can say that but for only an instance in time. since the signal experiences both refraction and reflection the angle can be changed or altered either by passing from one medium to another in the case of refraction (from air to no atmosphere) or from being reflected from the associated f1/f2 layers in the case of skywave propagation. over a sampled period of time the polarization of the signal will vary continuously along the entire 360 degree rotation for the duration of the contact. a single sense antenna at the receiver end (vertical or horizontal) will still yield up to 20db. of signal fading regardless of the single polarization of the transmitting antenna.

 

[CDX-007]

Oh the V-Quad. the only antenna that places both voltage and current in phase. :!:

If I were to install one I would acquire a TV antenna rotor, the type where the pole goes through the inside, and place the rotor in the center of the boom so I could roll it from vert to horiz.
Of course I would put it above a nice bell-type rotor for pointing.

For lower noise you'll want it horiz, for local chit-chat you'll need vertical, for DX you'll want horiz as you tend to get a better 1st bounce off the ionisphere, but sometimes a lower radiation angle from the vertical polarization is better for European / international DX.

It's the highest gain 2 element I know of, and with ears comparable to a set of stacked Y-Quads.

You can always run an IMAX up thru the center without disturbing the horizontal pattern, though you'll find the IMAX will show an odd pattern compared to standing alone.

I expect to hear glowing reports from you regarding it's performance once you've had it up for a while and have made multiple contacts.

Also, you'll find it less noisy, less static, than a horiz Yagi due to it being a closed loop.

73