I'm looking for a self-supporting Vertical antenna for use with an Icom AH-4 Tuner... 160-10 meters...

Any recommendations...?

A 43' DXE vertical will get you 80-10 nicely and you mount your AH-4 at the base.

ETA although an AH4 won't tune 160 meters it's worth the inconvenience.

Seconded.

Guy down the road from me has one of these adjacent to his house. Never heard him on the air yet. Seeing how we're all on a plateau of sorts here it's going to work well if he has a decent radial field.

FPNI.

For 160 you can add a coil as well.

Ordered one. Started installation. I'll let you know how well it works in this small space.

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You don’t even have to shorten them, just take a right angle turn at the fence or foundation.   Just space them a bit and don’t let any radials cross another.

Any old wire is good.  I used recycled wire to add longer radials to mine.  I try to seal the ends with silicone caulk to keep water from infiltrating and causing corrosion inside.

Thats what Im planning on doing…

If you could do 4-8 radials that are 1/4 wl on the lowest band you want to use that would be good. If you can get down 2 wl of radial wire for the lowest band you want to use that would also be good.

Is there a reason you guys are liking the DXE 43' vertical over the ZeroFive?

For me it came down to recommendations from multiple sources, the quality of the documentation and available options.

These are resonant on 40-2m, supposedly. I know they are resonant from 40-10m, never checked 6 or 2. It is possible to have 80m instead of 30, but I stuck with 30 instead.

So I got the antenna up. I threw down a few radials to see what would happen.

Had a QSL with CS8ABG in the Azores, Sao Miguel island on 15 meters.

After I scalp my front yard, I'll put down permanent radials and then run some in the backyard.

Thank you for the recommendations...


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Nicely done. Do want...

Now do this



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1. An AH-4 is weatherproof until it stops being weatherproof hence the upside down plastic trash can.

2. On the radial plate there should be a hole for a coax connector. It there is no connector then install one. Solder a wire to the center of it long enough to reach where the AH-4 wire connects to the radiator, solder an eye of some sort to the other end and DON'T connect it. Just leave it there. It give you options further down the line.

2-A. If/when the AH-4 dies or if you want to use the vertical for something else simply disconnect the AH-4, connect the coax connector, hook up a piece of coax to it and run it to what you want to use. Next good (warm) Tuesday night I am going to hook the PRC 320 to the vertical to use to check in on the net.

For those that may not of thought of it and have proper trees, you can either hang a simple copper wire from an overhanging limb OR if you havetwo trees between the area you want the the vertical to  be you can shoot a "catenary" line over each tree with a weight on each end. This catenary line (it can be parachute cord or something more substantial)  that you have put a stainless steel "quick link" on that catenary line to pull a string thru to pull you copper wire up and suspend it in the air.

The catenary line will move with the trees as the wind blows but your vertical radiator will be secure and suspended nicely with very low costs. It will also have low visual impact.  Think of the catenary line as a magic "skyhook" that you can hang multiple vertical radiators off of.

Run the string up and back down to the ground to make the lowering of the vertical easy without having to lower the catenary each time.  The string makes it easy to lower for trimming for best SWR.

This method may or may not work for you, but the price is right.

AND you can hand multiple length of copper wire if you have enough height for a 1/4 wave vertical not needing any tuner at all. And if part of the vertical is a bit long you can run the tag end of the string back over to one of the trees to make an inverted L for the lower bands where the vertical would be too long.  I had to do this with the end of my 40 meter element as it was longer than the catenary line was high off of the ground.  

All sorts of ideas, all very cheap and fun to build.   I use an air launcher to launch over the support trees.

Something to add to this:

Make a number of lightweight triangular spacers (say, one for every 4-6ft of height plus top and bottom) that are around 6" on a leg. Use three wires for the vertical; #12 solid if possible.
Tie the bottom side wires together in a "point"; the point connects to a 6" long ceramic dogbone insulator.The top sides are tied together around the triangle and to each apex run 6-8' of wire to an insulator.

Top wires, insulators plus support ropes run to 3 trees are used to hoist it up. Bottom of the lower insulator is connected to the radial anchor via a snubber spring. Top of that insulator is your feed point.

The fatter conductor diameter lowers Q and makes matching less fidgety while the horizontal portion of the setup acts as a capacitance hat.

A little more work but worth it on the lower bands. Adds mechanical durability too.

So, Im happy with the results.

I still haven't finished running ground plane wires, but I have been making DX contacts, Azores, Argentina, several in Russia, Cananda, Mexico and Costa Rica.