Maco 103C at 45 feet
HyGain P-500 will be mounted above the beam
Assembling the Maco 103C and mounting it Horizontal this next week..
It is said (and obviously true) that this will not work as well as a vertical mounted beam in a LOCAL vertical environment.
My question is, how does one define local?
Obviously 5 miles away a station would be considered local.
Same with someone 15 miles away.
But there are many towns that surround us in a 35 mile radius.
There are even more in a 60 mile radius (11,000 square miles)
What would one consider DX?
Would a vertical beam, 100 miles away, pointed my direction qualify as local or as DX?
@ 100 miles would it even matter if the beam were flat or vertical when pointed towards their vertical antenna or beam? (They would hear me and I would hear them just fine, right?)
Or does the signal need to bounce off of the ionosphere to be considered DX?
(I understand that the signal will also have a tendency to change polarization by bouncing off of buildings, trees and other objects also)
To clarify, if what I really want to reach is 100 to 150 miles away (Groundwave), would it be better to just mount the beam Vertical and forget the P-500?
I do talk local (usually with-in 30 miles) but would like to extend my range to the outer fringes.
My P-500 does a very poor job when the contacts are 50 miles away or further.
My main interest are the contacts that are 50 to 150 miles away.
Local is secondary.
Thank you in advance
HyGain P-500 will be mounted above the beam
Assembling the Maco 103C and mounting it Horizontal this next week..
It is said (and obviously true) that this will not work as well as a vertical mounted beam in a LOCAL vertical environment.
My question is, how does one define local?
Obviously 5 miles away a station would be considered local.
Same with someone 15 miles away.
But there are many towns that surround us in a 35 mile radius.
There are even more in a 60 mile radius (11,000 square miles)
What would one consider DX?
Would a vertical beam, 100 miles away, pointed my direction qualify as local or as DX?
@ 100 miles would it even matter if the beam were flat or vertical when pointed towards their vertical antenna or beam? (They would hear me and I would hear them just fine, right?)
Or does the signal need to bounce off of the ionosphere to be considered DX?
(I understand that the signal will also have a tendency to change polarization by bouncing off of buildings, trees and other objects also)
To clarify, if what I really want to reach is 100 to 150 miles away (Groundwave), would it be better to just mount the beam Vertical and forget the P-500?
I do talk local (usually with-in 30 miles) but would like to extend my range to the outer fringes.
My P-500 does a very poor job when the contacts are 50 miles away or further.
My main interest are the contacts that are 50 to 150 miles away.
Local is secondary.
Thank you in advance