RBOG Antenna

dlwarnberg

Juan TG9AJR

Good question David, I am also highly interest in the RBOG topic specially for the 160m with my 6600.

Steve K9ZW

I am putting in two this summer, spaced 90 degrees from each other. At this stage I can only remark on the purchasing phase. Would like to compare notes along the way. 73 Steve K9ZW http://K9ZW.wordpress.com

Kam Sirageldin

I have used them at my Maryland QTH and now at my Costa Rican QTH TI7W. In every instance I have found them to be highly effective at improving S/N ratio over most transmit antennas. I say 'most' because I use a full size 3el 80m yagi here, and the beverage hears about the same as that. But verticals, loops, inverted vees, etc have all been less effective RX wise than the RBOG. Just don't install it in parallel with any wire fencing, and smear the wire connections with Naalox or similar because they tend to corrode a bit in weather. I use the WD1 military telephone wire and it works fine. 73, Kam N3KS

dlwarnberg

So I did just order a single kit with wire so I guess the experiment begins...

dlwarnberg

Thanks for the reply, ordered a kit and will be experimenting soon...

Thanks again

dlwarnberg

So this is a really dumb question, but do they really mean ON THE GROUND?  like wire not elevated at all???

Juan TG9AJR

Yes literally "on the ground".

dlwarnberg

well that makes it easy to put up now doesn't it?   hahahaha

Kam Sirageldin

On the ground will result in good performance but you may need an external preamp because the signals will be pretty low in amplitude - but remember it's the signal to noise ratio you care about with RX antennas and that will be really good. I hang my beverage wires a few feet above the ground and any performance degradation has not been noticeable to me. 73 Kam N3KS TI7W

Jay Adrick

Steve K9ZW

Historical literature suggests they can be buried as well. There are antidotal further references to buried military uses. The references seem to lack technical details or performance summaries. My intent is to lay mine on the surface ignoring the cover that will collect. More to protect the wires from animals and traffic. Nearby hams with elevated beverages have been experiencing both types of damage, and had one snowmobiler get pretty caught up in one beverage. I’ll put up some links if wanted. 73 Steve K9ZW

Juan TG9AJR

I looked at that but has been Out Of Stock and I have not been lucky enough to get any answer from JK. If anyone else is lucky let me know. And does need according to their website "(Customer weather-proofing needed during installation)".

Ted VE3TRQ

Slightly off topic, but since the discussion is getting pretty general, I’ll put my 2 cents worth in. I live in an area with an HOA, and am not allowed to put up outside antennas. My antennas are in the attic, close to just too much electrical wiring. My noise levels on 80m are about S8, and on 160m about S9. I need a really strong signal before I hear much of anything. Enter the “LoG” - Loop on Ground :-) Last fall, just before snow arrived, I put a 60 foot loop of #10 stranded insulated wire (supposed to be a 15 ft per side square, but I just made it round) on the grass around the base of a tree in the back yard, connected to 50 ohm coax with a 1:9 beverage transformer. I immediately had a noise level on 80m and 160m of about S2 or S3 (so 6 S-units down from my attic). The signals appear to be about 2 or 3 S-units down compared to the wire in the attic, but the noise is down 6 - so I appear to have a 3 to 4 S-unit signal to noise advantage over the attic antenna. During the winter I noticed no degradation when the loop was buried under two feet of snow. Now that grass cutting and lawn maintenance season is about to start, I figured I needed to protect the wire from the contractors, so buried it under the sod (an inch or two under ground). And guess what? It STILL works the same. I’d rather have a nice wire high up, but this hidden loop makes me able to hear OK - and it also functions reasonably well up to 20m. Receive antennas really do work, especially when you have Rx antenna inputs on your radio. Ted VE3TRQ

Rick N4RZ

Oddly enough I removed my KD9SV RBOG from service earlier today.  I used it for two winters and found it to have little or no directivity and it displayed no advantage over my other antennas (dipole and OCF) in signal-to-noise ratio.    

AC9S

Lee - N2LEE

K0FLY

dlwarnberg

I'm looking at it to be a companion to my 43' vertical

dlwarnberg

I took a peek at that one as well and yes it is intriguing... but out of stock 

dlwarnberg

Thanks, will look it over

Ray Sylvester

look at a w1aex pennant antenna  73 ft of wire simple install no radials 

K0FLY

One additional comment, purchase ON4UN's "Low Band DXing Book", spend a lot of time reading Chapter 7(RX Antennas).   

Gayle K0FLY

HCampbell WB4IVF

dlwarnberg

K0FLY

Steve K9ZW

HCampbell WB4IVF

dlwarnberg

Excellent, thank you

dlwarnberg

dlwarnberg

Steve... notes... first off I have discovered I have very poor soil for a ground.. example I can take a 4 ft ground rod and just about push it all the way in without a hammer.  I then also discovered I can just about do the same with an 8 ft ground rod.. so I have ordered some compression couplers and am going to stack ground rods until I get into some fairly solid ground, very sandy area I have moved too.  Anyway am still working on this... since I have also installed the 43' vertical, again grounding it an issue and am putting down ground radials while I wait for the compression fittings to arrive.

But comparing the RBOG (180' of wire down) to the 43' vertical, the noise floor is slightly lower, but pointing just 2 directions I am limited on signals to compare but.. still working with it and hoping the better ground will help things.