Jimmie D wrote:
This afternoon while cleaning a closet I pulled out an old US map that had
been marked with contacts I made back when I worked 10M a lot. After the
local stations there is a big empty area on the map then I started making
contacts again at about 300 miles. Antenna used was a 1/4 lambda groundplane
with the radials drooping so to match 50 ohms. A chart I found indicates
that this means I have a vertical angle of radiation of 50 to 60 degrees. Is
this correct??. I didnt think the angle would be so great for this antenna.

Every antenna has a vertical beam width. For Vert1.ez
that comes with EZNEC, the 3 dB vertical beamwidth
goes from 9 deg to 53 deg with maximum radiation occurring
at 26 degrees. The vertical beamwidth on a vertical
creates a doughnut of coverage for the first hop. The
inner circle of your doughnut was at 300 miles where
your radiated power may have been more than 3 dB down
from your angle of maximum gain. Question is: Where
was the outer circle of your first hop doughnut?
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com