HEIGHT

This factor is one of  the most important one for DXers although many are not aware of this.
Very often, on this site there has been refered to the different take-off angles from different types of antennas and their heights.
We can learn that through propagation via the F2 layer the maximum distance reachable in a single hop is around the 2500 km (many information about propagation is available on Internet or through reading books).
There are two factors which are capable of changing that distance in ouwer favor. One is the height of the layer, it various say from 200 to 250 km (and the higher the better) and second the take-off angle (the lower the better it is for far DX)

take-off anlgetakeoff angle rechtoe

Above we see a some simple drawings of the earth and a layer from the ionosphere, in this case the F2 this was is one we used for DXing most of the time. The layer is situated about 200 to 250 km above the earth
taking a closer look at the second drawing we see a transmitted wave coming from the earth, imagine this is your antenna location.
Your radiation pattern from this antenna is drawn in red the angle between the earth and that red line is called the take-off angle. 
What it does is explained in the first drawing where A shows a high take-off angle which is the case for a horizontal yagi only a few meters above the earth.
In B the take-off angle is low, this one is produced by a very high placed yagi.

WHAT CAN INFLUENCE THE TAKE-OFF ANGLE?
To this question there are only three answers:
- The polarity of antenna we use
- The height of the antenna
- The ground conditions.


POLARIZATION OF A ANTENNA 
A vertical placed antenna is capable of producing quite low take-off angles without being placed high above the ground. For example: a normal GPA is able to produce angle's in the order of 16 degrees when it is sitting at the ground, a horizontal placed dipool has to be at 9 meters to does the same thing.  
A  horizontal dipool placed lower then 9 meters will have probarbly worse DX results as the vertical.

As said earlier it is not for nothing that for low frequencies (below 27 mhz say 7/3,5mhz or evan 1,8mhz), HAMs very often
use verticals for DXing

There are stories going around which say that vertical polarized antennas supposed to be worse for DXing cause they're radiation pattern sloops along with the earth...(it continues along the earth further then the horizon) Although I do not have any fundamental prove that this is not true. The opposite did not happen either. I think it is not true, I can not think of a reason why the radiation pattern would not take-off under a low angle...

One bad aspect of verticals however is know, a vertical above bad ground (desert) can't fill the high expectations which we just gave it. Horizontal antennas often outperform verticals under these conditions.

At bad ground it is a bad DX antenna the reasons for that are to far to go into at this site. An example was that a horizontal 1 element quad proved to be 1 to 2 S-units stronger towards Europa from 234 division (very bad ground).
Above good ground this effect seems to be amplified just think of those /MM stations...

This advantage of a vertical antenna, just might be where the Quad has got its great reputation from. A quad has two times a quarter wave radiating section which is vertical polarized. In the old days on lower frequencies HAMs reported that the band seemed to be opening earlier on a quad then on a yagi, the band seemed to close a bit later as well.
So when you can not place your favourite antenna high enough a vertical can be a solution for you if you want to work some DX.

There are also disadvantages to vertical,

GROUND
 underconstruction
 1DX101     This antenna is from Paolo 1DX101,
    The 3 elements Delta Loop has a boomlenght of  5,4 meters...
   
    Paolo is located on a litlle island in Italy
    He is situated only 20 meters from the sea on the East front. 25 meters to the North and about 3 km from     the     Sea to     the west.  So, sea all around.
   
    The antenna has a maximum height of 11 meters. With this station he reaches results everyone can be     jalouse off.         Just take a look at cluster.dk and wait until he is on!
   
    Paolo started in begin 2004 and is now (medio 2006) already on 189 confirmed DXCC's
    This is a great Example of what a great location could bring you with a great antenna!




THE HEIGHT VERSUS TAKE-OFF ANGLE.
As said and not for nothing, height is important. If you are searching for a big signal on the other side of the world there is are two solutions bigger and higher!

The table below is for ALL horizontal placed antenna over normal ground, they will have the following take off angle's (T/A) at named heights. And don not believe any other story it does not mater how many elements you have a Dipool or a 10 elements yagi will produce under the named angle its signal!
 Meters   T/O  Meters  T/O  Meters  T/O  Meters  T/O  Meters  T/O  Meters  T/O  Meters  T/O
     1    44      5   24       9   16     13   11     17    9    21    7      25    6
     2    33      6   22     10   14     14   11     18    8    22    7      30    5
     3    31      7   19     11   13     15   10     19    8    23    7      35    4
     4    27      8   17     12   12     16     9     20    8    24    6      40    4

The table above shows where the main signal is radiated ( we still have radiation at other take-off angles aswell)
Do not forget there is a big difference between take-off angle and gain..
If you compare these with the different take-off  angles provided in the chapter verticals, you can see when a horizontal antenna (with the same gain) will outperform the vertical.
For example if you are NOT able to erect a yagi in the near of  8..9 meters, say when you are on a DX-expedition you just might be better of  with a vertical
(in both cases the antennas nearly the same gain.)


NOT ALWAYS?
There are studies who tell us that radiated angles below 5 degrees are slightly absorbed by the ground.

Wich angle are you looking for?
Well to give you an impression: Pacific for Europa 1-5 degrees. Those are the lower ones and for Europa these angles
should be around the 25 degrees. 
With programms like VOACAP or with YTAD and The programm Yagi Terrain Analyser from K6STI wich comes with the ARRL-Antennabook.
You can calculate what angle you want for a certain DXCC!.

With this knowledge you can understand that in some cases it can be better to place a high small yagi say a "cheap" 3 elements yagi instead of a lower big gun 5 elements long john. It just depends what you want: are you truly searching for that opening into the pacific for that last DXCC you just might put your money into a higher mast. A 5 elements (free space  8,5 dBD gain) placed 9 meters above the ground  would have 13,06 dBD gain at 16 degrees.
At 7 degrees the same yagi still produces 9,52dBD.
A small 3 elements yagi (free space 6dBD gain)will produce the same signal (9,6dBD) at 7 degrees with a hight of 13 meters.  Visa versa the 3 elements will at 16 degrees take-off angle "only" produces about 10 dBD and thats a big difference between the 5 elements.
Next example:
Below we see a 4 elements long boom yagi at a height of 12 meters. We see that this antenna is doing a great job at 12 degrees there it peaks.
12 degrees for my location is say..Africa. (north side) The higher take-off angle (C) is actually of no use for use DXers, it might come in handy during Sproadic-E skip but for F2 dx not really intresting.  
Next example:.4el 12m

Now we are going to take a look at a small 3 elements yagi (half the boomlenght) Below we can see the results for that antenna at 18 meters height
                       
                       3 el 18 m

We are producing 11,55 dBD at 8 degrees...This means your signal will have the same signal strenght and you will receive equally well: stations wich are ariving at 8 degrees at your QTH.

The conclusion wich can be made is: for DXing it might be wiser to spent money in height then in boomlenght.

What about a bigger antenna then?
If you are limited in height then YES go for a bigger yagi a change from a 3 to a 5 elements is deffinitly a big improvement! also in the regions further away, remember your take-off angle peaks for example at 10 degrees with a 5 elements it would do the same at the same height but the gain is higher, therefor the gain is also at lower angles higher!.

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