SHAKESPEARE BIG STICK

[Robb]

The truth is if you want to talk DX and a directional beam is not an option, nothing you can buy regardless of cost is going to perform as well as a few dollars worth of wire made into a dipole or quad loop if space permits. These simple wire antennas will run circles around any vertical omni for the vast majority of DX propagation.

I'll take the quad loop every time . . .

 

[Road Squawker]

... as we all know it's all about weather conditions and mother nature...

err, no we "all" don't know that.

there is a saying about when the band is open, you can work the world on a "wet noodle",............

believe me, a bigger wet noodle IS better**Jump_im**

 

[w9cll]

err, no we "all" don't know that.

there is a saying about when the band is open, you can work the world on a "wet noodle",............

believe me, a bigger wet noodle IS better**Jump_im**

Sometimes....

 

[Shockwave]

I'll take the quad loop every time . . .

I stuck a full wave quad loop in an attic years ago because outdoor antennas were frowned upon at the location. Prior to that I'd been using an Antron 99 on a 20 foot pole that I would stand up against the porch railing when in use.

The quad was broadside to the DX I worked and the group of locals I talked with a few towns away. Using alligator clips on the end of the coax feeding the quad and 4 more clips in the quad itself, I was able to quickly switch polarity from horizontal during the day to vertical at night.

The indoor quad had enough gain over the zero gain Antron that it beat the performance of the outdoor Antron both local and in skywave. Not bad for some free speaker wire and 75 ohm CATV coax.