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Beverage Antenna

Travelling-Wave Antennas

A long, low receiving wire prized for its quiet, directional low-band reception.

Band
LF/MF/HF (160-40 m)
Gain
Low absolute gain; high directivity/front-to-back
Polarization
Horizontal (responds to vertical arrivals)

Photos

Real-world photo of a Beverage Antenna in use
Real-world example. Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0; Astro-Tom-ical).

Radiation / wave patterns

Idealized radiation pattern of the Beverage Antenna
Idealized azimuth radiation pattern (illustrative, generated). Radial scale in dB.

How & why it works

A Beverage is a wire one or more wavelengths long strung low over the ground and terminated at the far end into a resistor to earth. It works as a travelling-wave antenna: signals arriving from the wire's direction add up along its length while the termination suppresses the reverse response, giving a strongly directional pattern with deep rejection off the back. It is inefficient as a transmitter but superb for receiving, delivering an excellent signal-to-noise ratio on 160 and 80 meters where atmospheric noise dominates.

Real-world uses

Receive-only low-band DXing, contest super-stations, and broadcast DX listening.