Custom Mobile Install

[Turboomni]

From my basic understanding a horizontal dipole will be rather directional compared to a vertical antenna. If the ends of your horizontal dipole are pointing like a compass North and South your direction of receive and transmit will be rather East and West. What was fascinating to me was the fact you can aim the direction even more by the height of the horizontal dipole is off the ground. Too high off the ground and your signal will go vertical very well ,good if you want to talk with outer space. Some would say get it as high as possible ,,30 40 or more feet. Watched a few Ham videos on horizontal dipoles and all seem to say the best height for DX is 1/2 wave length off the ground. That would be 16 to 17 feet for us I believe. My dipole is strung up in some trees, has no clear view and is covered with branches and leaves and next to a aluminum sided house and is only about 17 feet off the ground. When DX is good I hear all over the Midwest ,East coast down to FLA,,Ontario Canada ,New Brunswick,Kentucky ,Georgia,Dallas TX etc. I have spoken to all mentioned states except FLA . My antenna is pointed South West/ North East so the the ends of my Dipole are pointing NW and SE a bit. I believe that is why I havent been able to contact FLA.

[whiteastro]

Thanks for the input, I'll have to do more study and thinking on the matter at hand. I googled aiming a dipole last night so I have some reading ahead of me because I bookmarked it. I know I don't know much about it but seems if the wind is always flexing your coax connection that is a weak spot for breakage. But there I go thinking like a maintenance person again. LOL

[Turboomni]

Were you calling.for 505 from Western MA this afternoon? I heard someone calling for me and I was hoping it was you. But I lost who ever it was as the band was so crowded.

[whiteastro]

No it wasn't me calling 505 but I did stick my dipole up in the attic today. I had 100' of RG 8U coax laying around doing nothing so I thought I would hook my dipole up in the attic and maybe I would get lucky but no such luck. I had a SWR of 1.5-1 across the board but it went higher with the amp. I heard all kinds of skip but couldn't make a contact running barefoot. Probably all the big radios covered me up. I have to get that SWR down so I could use the amp.