[Antennas] (no subject)

Tue Sep 7 21:15:28 EDT 2010

Well thanks for all the responses. First of all let me say that i'm not a newbie at this game totally. Been chasing DX for a lot of years. this is a new problem that i'm not familiar with. QRZ says that 5Z4 land is at 49 degrees from here and my HRD program also shows it at 48 degrees. I know that the beam and rotator configuration are correct. Lined it up with known locations as well as a compass. The house sets at an offset of 30 degrees from north so i used that as a calibration point. This was determined with a compass and GPS. 
When the beam was pointed at 48 degrees i couldn't hear the station. When it was pointed at 140 degrees he was nicely copiable. As i live in a residential area where there are no tin roofs i can't think that is a problem or even consideration. the beamwidth of approximately 50 degrees would mean that even though i was not pointed directly at the station it would continue to deliver a significant amount of RF in the general area to cover that stations QTH. I don't put that into the equation. 
Yes i do have a balun at the feedpoint. It suggested about 10 turns of RG-8 but i had a well built reputable 1:1 balun commercial built that i used instead. I don't have an antenna analyzer so i have not looked at it from that point of view. The bottom of the tower is grounded with several ground rods which are also tied into the ground wires that i laid along the pipes when i put in a sprinkler system. 
As a matter of note, i also have a 4 el 20 mtr beam on a 30 ft tower about 40 ft away, best spacing i could get. It performs wonderfully with the same feed arrangement. 
I suspect it's just pure magic and may actually be propagation related. Strange how things work as to what you can hear or not hear out here in the desert. When the rest of the world is working everyone, look at the dx clusters, i can't hear a thing nor can i be heard. And i know the radio and antennas are working. It may very well have been that i was hearing Charlie via a distorted path. I've noticed propagation abnormalities that other people just look at me and nod their heads when i tell them about it. Sure, he's been out in the sun to long. Oh well. 
The antenna is put together correctly. What i am in doubt about is whether the spacing of the elements is right compared to what i see on the HyGain site. That's the easiest comparison. The spacing on this beam are more uniform whereas the Hygain 155 has a larger dimension i believe between the 1st director and 2nd director. No i didn't dig out the drawings when i made that statement about different dimensions. I guess that is where i would start if i pull the antenna down this winter and rebuild it using different spacing. Anyone to comment on this?
I really appreciate the comments and suggestions. I may well be overlooking something very simple and that's why i'm not seeing what is going on.
Larry
KN6TUP in 1958, W0OGH since 1972 with 52 years of ham radio enjoyment inbetween!