[aprssig] TransAtlantic Balloon on 28 MHz ?

[Stephen H. Smith]

On 2/16/2012 12:18 AM, Bob Bruninga wrote:
> Do you have a 10 meter (28 MHz) vertically polarized beam?
>
> We are working on a 28 MHz transatlantic Balloon with a CW transmitter on 10m using (of course) a vertical dipole.
>
> It will have no GPS, so tracking will be entirely by beam headings and some signal-strength assessment.
>
> Just wondering if anyone has a vertical beam.
>
> A horizontal beam will be useless for direction finding.  All it will do is point to whatever is reflecting the energy into the strongest horizontal component...
>
> Hummh...
> Bob, WB4APR
>
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Sounds like you need an old 27 MHz CB beam.  These were ALWAYS vertically 
polarized.  Cut the elements down 5-10%.

Did you see the article on page 40 of the latest (March 2012) QST about HF 
propagation.   "Three Wrong Assumptions about the Ionosphere" seems to suggest 
that there is so much polarization shifting going on, due to the ionosphere 
being such an irregular wavy and non-parallel reflector (thing crumpled 
aluminum foil rather than mirror), that antenna polarization is almost 
irrelevant on non-line-of-sigjht paths on HF.

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