Beverage experiments 2 from pe4bas.blogspot.com

Well, a day later. I got some comments about the beverage that wouldn't work including some hints and tips from W0BTU Mike (I linked to his page regarding the beverage transformers). Did I expect too much. No, but I expected at least a low noise antenna and all I got at that moment was S8 noise!

I actually wrote part of the beverage experiment post many months ago at the start of 2018 I think. And kept it as a  concept post since I didn't realize a real beverage yet. But last week one of my neighbours announced he did buy part of the property behind our garden. That would mean the barbwire fence was going away. So, a little in panic I decided I had to realize the beverage before it is too late. A day later I found myself in the dark and cold connecting the tranformer, coax and earthrod. Then I made the test with WSPR for one night and listened to the signal. It wasn't really what I expected.

Transformer boxed with large ferrite ring in coax

Today I checked out the beverage in daylight. I could't find anything wrong except that I forgot to wind the coax through a large ferrite ring just before the transformer. But the coax I used (RG213) was too thick to wind. I replaced the coax for Aircell7 and wind it through a large ferrite ring material 61 which would be good for low frequencies. Then I had to do other things in the garden. A little later I saw my neighbour cutting part of the barbwire fence at his side. Oh no! There goes my beverage I thought....but talking to him he revealed that everything was kept in place except the part that was between his garden en the new aquired land. In the end the positive side of this is that the wire is not a  big loop anymore. W0BTU already commented that if I connected the transformer at the center of the fence it would not work like a beverage. But now my transformer is near one end of the barbwire so this is a huge difference.

RX station, 2x WSJT-X

And indeed it is. Listening again revealed the noise was gone and signals were just as good as on the inverted-V, some even better. Compared SNR levels so far at the start of the evening both antennas were equal. But comparing WSPR signals I already saw signal traces on the waterfall on the beverage that I didn't see on the inverted-V. Since a beverage antenna is directional it is difficult to compare with a inverted-V. My inverted-V goes from NE to S, The beverage is oriented to NE. Not ideal since most WSPR DX is from the direction NW (USA).

So another test was made last night...

RX on beverage. WB5WPA was not received on the inverted-V

RX on the inverted-V clearly not the winner this night!

See the difference in the amount of spots and the signal strength. I would say the beverage is clearly a winner. I'll have been listening with the beverage on MW and all AM stations sound great without the usual interference. Now next experiment is listening on 475 KHz WSPR, after one hour listening tonigh it looks promising!