Wellbrook mounting question

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Ryangn

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I have a Wellbrook ALA1530S+. I have an old dish on the roof almost to the top of the roof line and was thinking of taking it down and using the mount for my wellbrook. My question on that is how high above the roof should I mount the wellbrook too not disturb the receive pattern of it? The other thing I was considering was putting it in the backyard away from the house and closer to the ground which seems to be preferred on the various threads I have read. However my backyard is very heavily wooded and I am not sure if that would cause a problem with reception? I am open to any other ideas, suggestions or advice. Thanks in advance!
 

invergordon

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I too toyed with this conundrum when I bought my first Wellbrook. Essentially it all depends on your EM environment but I found that placing the loop at ground level mounted on the remains of a wooden broom handle 200mm above the lawn works best. I had tried it at various heights from 8 metres down.

The other consideration as you mentioned is placing it as far from man made noise as possible and this is true in my case even though my section is fenced with corrugated iron it seems to have negligible effect on reception so wouldn't worry too much about your wooded area.

The best solution is to test, test and analyse any outcomes for the best reception.
 

EricCottrell

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Hello,

I have an older ALA1530. I found it was more noisy mounting it on the roof. Reception improved when I moved it away from buildings. I think rooftop mounting was bad because of noise pickup from the downward direction.

73 Eric
 

Ryangn

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I have an older ALA1530. I found it was more noisy mounting it on the roof. Reception improved when I moved it away from buildings. I think rooftop mounting was bad because of noise pickup from the downward direction.

73 Eric

That was one of the concerns I had. I'm glad to see that confirmed. Thanks for saving me the work of crawling around on the roof.


The other consideration as you mentioned is placing it as far from man made noise as possible and this is true in my case even though my section is fenced with corrugated iron it seems to have negligible effect on reception so wouldn't worry too much about your wooded area..

I was hoping someone would say don't worry about the trees. I stopped at the hardware store on my way home from work to get some stuff together in anticipation of putting it out in the back just in case the roof idea was a no go.

The best solution is to test, test and analyse any outcomes for the best reception.

And that's half the fun of it!

Thank you both for your input.
 

ka3jjz

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Trees have very little effect on HF; however branches falling on the loop from a storm might be a significant issue. Something to consider there...Mike
 

Newage

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Hi there, im in the same boat about where to place my Wellbrook loop for best results for the equipment im using, at the moment my loop is on an 8 foot pole 25 - 30 feet from the house.

It's interesting what's been said about placing it closer to the ground, I will try that out tomorrow.

I'll try it out on the VOLMET feq as that's one that I can receive all the time.
i shall report back as to the results.

Cheers Mike T
 

Ryangn

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Trees have very little effect on HF; however branches falling on the loop from a storm might be a significant issue. Something to consider there...Mike

Oh I have thought of that already as well and I'm trying not to. Of course you could also say if it were to be put on the roof greater chance of lightning strike. I guess when we're talking about storms and antennas there is a lot of possibilities of what could take out an antenna no matter where it's put but something to think about nonetheless. Although out here I would be more concerned about what the wildlife may do to it then a storm.
 

Ryangn

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It's interesting what's been said about placing it closer to the ground, I will try that out tomorrow.

From what I have read close to the ground is the preferred location for loops but I thought I would see what others would have to say about roof mounting it. Please do let us know what kind of results you get if you do try relocating yours and testing it out.
 

Newage

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Right just moved my Wellbrook loop, I`m listerning to RAF VOLMET on 5.4500 USB, OK reception, I don`t have any test equipment so this was done with my mk 1 ear only.

Start point - 9 1/2 feet above ground, I then dropped the loop down by 1 foot at a time and went back and checked the reception, at 7 1/2 feet I had to turn on ATT, by 4 1/2 feet the reception was getting poor, I`ve gone to a mid point of 6 1/2 feet above the ground and this seems to offer the best reception.

I`ve now changed over to Shanwick NATs on 5.6490 USB and good clear comms and I can just and I mean just hear the return comms from the aircraft.

Cheers Mike T
 

ka3jjz

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<sigh> Unfortunately even a good antenna can't overcome crummy propagation. Nice to see you're making progress

Mike
 

Ryangn

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Right just moved my Wellbrook loop, I`m listerning to RAF VOLMET on 5.4500 USB, OK reception, I don`t have any test equipment so this was done with my mk 1 ear only.

Start point - 9 1/2 feet above ground, I then dropped the loop down by 1 foot at a time and went back and checked the reception, at 7 1/2 feet I had to turn on ATT, by 4 1/2 feet the reception was getting poor, I`ve gone to a mid point of 6 1/2 feet above the ground and this seems to offer the best reception.

I`ve now changed over to Shanwick NATs on 5.6490 USB and good clear comms and I can just and I mean just hear the return comms from the aircraft.

Cheers Mike T

Thanks for posting your results. Never know until you start experimenting. I don't have any test equipment either so I will be doing this by ear as well.
 
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