[Hi-zreceivingarraydiscussions] HiZ3 and low angles

[Lee K7TJR]

Hello Steve, 
    Your observations of the following stations are all to the West of you.
 It has been my observation that the angles here in the NW steadily
 progress higher as the morning progresses. Especially early in the
 season as we are now. You are correct that the Hi-Z arrays are lower
 angle arrays than most and I have seen here in the west that as the
 morning wore on the signals would get better on the higher angle
 arrays and the larger TX antenna. I believe that you may find that
 when you have the array look in the other directions during the
 common darkness across the US you should see a drastic
 improvement over the TX antenna with the array. Also to the West
 you should find that VK and ZL stations that get on late in the evening
 will show a considerable improvement. 
   One other thing of note is that you should check your background
 noise on the array. You may find that the array may tend to pick up
 any local power line interference easily. This can mask signals and
 limit the capability of the array. I encourage you to switch to the A.M.
 mode on your RX and carefully look for any hum or carrier
 components to the background noise. 
   Be sure to give the array a chance in the Eastern direction. There
 has been terrible propagation lately but maybe you could listen for
 Herb KV4FZ or others for a different sort of test. In most cases we are
 aware of the 3 element outperforms the K9AY loop for DX chasers.
   Lee  K7TJR 

My initial observations with morning DXing on 160m these past weeks (NH8S,
3D2C, 9M2AX, RW0CR, HL5IVL) are as follows:

1.       The directivity is wonderful when I first tested it on daylight AM
BCB stations and early morning 160m stateside and DX.

2.      The gain level is quite high compared to the K9AY.   160m band noise
is S3-S5 on the HiZ.  The same band noise on the K9AY (with 13dB preamp)
would rarely move the S-meter.

3.      The K9AY would always hear better than my omni vertical or my 80m
dipole, without exception.  This is especially true for the NE path to
Europe where the vertical or dipole would not hear EU stations at all..

4.      While listening to the DX stations over the past weeks, signals were
as good on the dipole and omni vertical as they were on the HiZ, even while
the HiZ showed excellent directivity.

 
The K9AY notch is more like 25 to 50 degrees depending on ground conditions
and termination resistance.  I wish I could set up both the K9AY and HiZ for
comparisons but I don't have the space.