Will this lose radio contact?

[jempiedra]

Hi,

I have a question about an offset dipole antenna, 138-174 4.5 dBi. I'm installing a repeater at a wind turbine generator park. The plan is to put the antenna at the top of one of the turbine in the middle of the park. This antenna has 195 horizontal beam. So the top of the turbine rotates 360 degrees to be able to catch wind coming from any direction. If the antenna ends up turning away from the base station that we are trying to reach will I loose radio contact?? The base station is about 10km away. Thanks for your help.

 

[VEBill]

If the antenna has a deep null in the horizontal gain pattern, then probably. There are many variables, e.g. leakage from the feed point wiring filling in the null, reflections, etc. Oftentimes such complications simply rotate the null to a slightly different relative bearing.

Why not install the antenna a bit further down the tower (I assume that the tower itself is fixed)? If you space it about a quarter wavelength from the tower, you might even get a bit more gain.

Alternatively (cheaper), use an antenna that is truely omnidirectional in the horizontal plane. A cheap monopole installed vertically is omni.

I'm not touching the topic of the rotating blades and their possible effect on the link.