There's a plethora of Brazilian pirates around 8 MHz, and I would like to try DXing them. They run fairly low power, so they are going to be tough catches. I've not had much luck yet with my existing antennas, other than the occasional carrier. Summer is approaching, and while it will not be the best time to hear them, it will be an opportunity to build an antenna, in preparation for the fall/winter DX season.
I'd like something with gain towards South America, or at least attenuation in other directions, since HF noise levels are usually well above receiver noise. So... what to build?
A dipole is the easiest, and would give a few dB of gain.
That got me to thinking about two or more dipoles, spaced the appropriate distance apart, for additional gain. However the trees are not going to cooperate and be correctly spaced.
Next thought, an array of vertical antennas. I can space them as needed and even feed with appropriate coax lengths for proper phasing. But I'm a little leery of vertical antennas, with their reputation for being noise magnets. Plus I'll want a reasonable ground radial system for each.
That next got me to thinking about replacing each vertical with an amplified antenna, perhaps a small loop. But still placing them in a line as an array for directionality. I am not sure how well matched all of the amplifiers would be in terms of preserving the phase of the received signal, for proper phasing for directionality. Other factors are the cost (lots of amps) and the question of how good reception will be, my experience with the loop I built with the LZ1AQ amp (which is a very good quality amp) is that signal quality is not as good as a full sized antenna. So several of these together may still not be great.
Any recommendations / other suggestions from the antenna gurus?