The death of Google+

Just got the message that Google+ will shut down february 4 and ending second day of april.

Ok, I know Google+ never had the number of users Facebook has. But I got a lot of readers of this blog from Google+. I always post new blogposts in communities like Amateur Radio (48K users), Ham Radio (4,5K users) and my own page which has been followed by 183 followers. There are also a lot of bloggers that opened comments via Google+, something that you could choose a few years ago. Personally I didn't because I didn't like it. I'm happy I didn't do that in the past since all Google+ comments will be lost forever.

Yes, there is facebook, instagram and some other options to spread the word but they were not as easy as google+. It is unfortunate they close this platform. But there will be others, I'm shure of that...

Interesting read:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/10/google-plus-users-mourn-shutdown.html

Experimental H-pole antenna

It has to be a year ago I got this vertical all band antenna info from dutch antenna "guru" PG0DX Henry. I almost forgot but when experimenting with the vertical I suddenly remembered it. The vertical aside the tower is no success, I tried it for a few days on several bands but it is not as good as the inverted-V, even not at low angles. Of course I read some comments on verticals compared to a full-size dipole and most of the times a dipole wins. A vertical is no miracle antenna. Though I had excellent results with my coppertape vertical before I managed to get the tower up. I'm confident there is a way to improve. So, this is about the experimental H-pole antenna which is described by HB9MTN. It is a allband antenna off center fed and kind of small due to the use of  lineair loading at top and bottom.The antenna needs a tuner to work and that is exactly what I want. It is quite easy to make with about 30m wire, some electricity tubes, rope and some insulating parts. It can be hung on top of a tower sloping down or on a fiberglass pole. Polarisation is vertical. HB9MTN simulated some take off angles with EZNEC and it looks good enough to try this vertical. Since it is about 10m long the buildings that are now affecting my vertical are less of a problem since the bottom is about 3m above the ground the way I want it to hang from my tower.

Sunday was a real beautiful day to work on antennas. Constructing the H-pole antenna was piece of cake. Actually making the ladderline was just as much work. Since Henry told me the antenna is sensitive for steel constructions like my mast I should try to mount it at the fiberglass pole. So I did, but I didn't trust it at all, shure it went up and shure it does well in this beautiful weather. But what if some wind will blow....I changed plans and went to the original plan. Sloping it down from my tower. I figured this would work as good as the vertical aside the mast. And actually it does.

This time I had DX stations to compare:

Actually I was surprised to see YB9AY (Indonesia) just after first receive tests with the H-pole. Actually first 2 white reports are with the vertical. But with the TX differences in mind I switched to the inverted-V since I didn't want to miss a new DXCC on 60. Last green report is with the H-pole.

Later in the evening I saw C5YK (The Gambia), a new one again...it's my lucky Sunday. After I worked him on the inverted-V I decided to change to the vertical. The 3 reports -13,-18, -18 are on the vertical, then I switched back on the inverted-V. No, the H-pole isn't a miracle antenna but for the short length it is working fine. I'm shure if you hang it free the results are excellent. A nice experiment though...

Still, to improve the signal on 60m I need something different I guess. 

I also tried the H-pole on 20m. Signals were equal to my HF5B but interference was a lot worse. On 160m signals were the same/better as on the inverted-V. Not bad...

To finish the sunday I had a QSO with LU8HF on 60m FT8 with the inverted-V, I was finally heard in South America. It really was my lucky Sunday!

Interesting spot from 9M2CNC (West Malaysia)

Experimental vertical antenna - elevated radials

Vertical wire aside the mast

I got some comments on my vertical from PG0DX Henry. He told me I probabely should try to elevate the radials. It is a very good idea and I now remember that if you use ground radials you nee a lot of them to actually have good results with it. Using elevated radials will improve gain with just a few of them. Even a few cm above the ground will help. N6LF Rudy described it in a very interesting paper.



So now the practical side of the radials, the problem is "room". I can elevate the radials but not permanent since it is my garden and there are other members of the family walking there as well. It is winter now so there is not much to do in the garden so just for a experiment I have elevated the 5 radials. I'm just curious how this works.

Base of my tower

On the photo at the left you see the autotuner below the plastic bag. After all the water in the tuner last year I don't take any risks anymore. The wooden block is for separating the radials from the grounded mast.


I've been testing before sunset with a interval from about 5 minutes. So far I don't see much difference in RX but in TX it is worse except at Henry's QTH but he's also receiving with the vertical. Of course this would be normal since the vertical should be worse since the angle of radiation is too low for Europe stations. The comparisation is estimated since propagation can change in those 5 minutes.




Some comparisations:

TX  (5W)             Inverted-V    Vertical                 RX                    Inverted-V      Vertical
DL3ANK              -17               -24                        MW0GSR        -08                   -07
ES2HV                  -04               -03                       DL5ZG             -16                   -16
SM2SUM               00                -11
G3SEP                   00                -09
M0ORH                -12               -22
M0TRP                 -14               -20
SM5FOQ              +9                -03

I had to wait to late in the evening to do a DX comparisation. But unfortunately propagation was not in my favour. I didn't see much north american stations at all to compare antennas. Only one at RX and one Argentinian station.

TX (5W)          Inverted-V     Vertical                     RX            Inverted-V      Vertical
PG0DX/1          -09                -08                            K1HTV     -15                   -16
SM5FQQ          -08                +2                             LU8ENU   -22                   -23
GM0HUU          00                -08
TA4/G8SCU     -20                -08

The thing is that both antennas receive equally but TX is much more difference. Although I was not spotted at DX (say about 5000km or more). I'm not really impressed!

I'm shure a vertical does well if placed completely free or near water with much more elevated radials may be. Henry is using a vertical with 10 elevated radials. He told me he just finished a FT8 QSO to ZL with only 1W QRP on 60m. Of course thats not only the antenna but the propagation as well.