Beverage Antennas
Much has been written about beverage receiving antennas so I won't go into lots of details. But, I have tried a number of receiving antennas for the lowbands and found my short beverages to work quite well. When I first got started on 160 meters I used my inverted L for both receive and transmit. The lowbands are very noisy and therefore difficult to hear much DX. I read an article in Feb. 1995 QST by Floyd Koontz WA2WVL about a receiving antenna called the EWE. I put one up and couldn't believe how well it worked. So, I decided to put up 3 more and switched them to now have receive antennas NE, SW, NW, SE. I worked about 70 Dx entities with these antennas and also improved my contesting scores in 160 meter contests.
After about 5 years or so I had decided that I had worked about all of the DX my EWE antennas could hear. So, I decided to try some short beverages. About all I could use were 300 foot versions which are probably the shortest they can be and still be effective. I live in a rural area surrounded by woods. I put up one pointed to Europe and another pointed to Japan. I had to "borrow" a little property through the woods from my neighbors. I put them up about 8 feet high so the deer and other critters wouldn't tear them down. The first and last 40 feet or so slope from 8 foot to ground level where the feed end has a 450 ohm transformer from I.C.E. and the other end has a 330 ohm resistor to ground. These short beverages work great. I am now able to hear stations that I couldn't hear on the EWE's. If a EWE is all you can put up, then do so. They also worked well and are worth the effort of construction. Other receiving antennas worth trying would be K9AY loops, pennants and flags.
Ideal Beverage Lengths
Beverages are a fairly broadbanded antenna, therefore the lengths do not need to be real critical like a dipole or similar antenna. But, there are some lengths considered to be better. These lengths are referred to as "cone of silence" lengths. These lengths provide the best F/B and are multiples of an electrical 0.5 wavelength. Below is a chart that lists short beverage lenghts. As you can see, my 300 foot beverages fall well in the parameters of 160-40 meters. They seem to work well on all bands.
|
160 |
290 ft |
585 ft |
880 ft |
1160 ft |
|
80 |
150 ft |
295 ft |
440 ft |
580 ft |
|
40 |
75 ft |
150 ft |
225 ft |
295 ft |
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