After passing my general a couple months ago, I am now ready to start shopping for a HF capable radio.  I had thought I already had a radio picked, the FT-991a.  All my other radios are Yaesu, I thought no reason to change now.  I had originally planned to purchase this radio and sell the FTM-400 I am now using as base to help fund it (Doge is down).  But I use cross band repeat quite a bit.  I have a small farm and take an HT out while I am doing chores and tasks.  

I found out that that no all mode transceiver supports cross band now.  So much for that plan.

So, as of now I am planning on the Icom 7300, unless I get better direction here.  I also have a 2730a that will crossband so that will become the new VHF/UHF rig.  

Antenna plans are a dipole in a line of trees about 50 ft from my house.  The trees are about 30' tall and run about 200', then turn 90º and run another 200'.  

I know I am a little low.  But, to be honest, I am much more interested in QSO with American contacts than DXing.  I mean, if I could have the ability to both, that would be nice.  But stateside contacts are my main interest.  

This antenna will be touching the trees, not strung in between in open air.  Not ideal I know but have to work with what I have (wife).

I have a 30ft tower, but XYL says no more vertical antennas on that tower.  It has a Comet GP-9 on top, HDTV a little lower, 2 yagis - one for LTE booster and one for LTE modem - and a 800mhz scanner antenna.  

Any advice would be great.  Thanks.

Tree line:

The dipole touching the trees is a bad idea all around. Not only will it affect the radiation pattern and impedance (i.e. load presented to the transmitter),  you'll have to deal with damage caused by the branches.  If you live in snow country, branches can get weighted down and break things.

The IC-7300 is a fine radio, but try to find another antenna solution.  For a quick and dirty installation what you're planning will work, but it probably won't last and may give disappointing results.

As far as DX goes, until the sun becomes active again propagation is poor.  I'm on the east coast and can work all the way to the west coast, but Europe is not possible at this time (at least for me).  It's a sad state of affairs, I recall in the 70's how great the propagation was on 15 and 20 meters.

ETA: From what you stated initially, your trees are in an "L" layout where each leg of the "L" is 200 feet long?  Can't you string the dipole from a tree in one of the "L" legs to a tree in the other leg, so it's in free space?

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I worked Finland, Arizona, Hawaii and Russia last night in my camper with my FT-991A in my go box running off a battery and a Chameleon EmComm 2.0 and. 30’ fiberglass pole in a drive on mount. Get a 991A or a 7300 and some wire antennas and get on the air. Wire antennas are cheap enough to buy a couple few to try. I spent a bunch of time hung up on perfection, but every time I try something new I make contacts.

Whatever you do first antenna wise probably won’t be what you have in a few months in my experience. Try an end fed and dipole and do what you can. It’s a continuous improvement project for me.

ETA. I think the screen and waterfall on the 7300 are way better and I think it’s easier to set up for digital modes, but I think the tuner in the 991A is a little better and so is the DSP and having SSB VHf/UHF makes it a real value. I have a bunch of Yaesu, but still plan to add a 7300 to the stable for portable and travel work.

both my 80m dipole and my 160m doublet are both in the trees. As long as you use insulated wire it isnt a big issue.

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I just looked up "cross band repeat" as I am unfamiliar with it. How does this differ from the "split" mode that the 7300, and presumably other radios with dual VFO offer?

As far as having wires touching trees, what I did was put a pulley at each end and one toward the middle (each pulley is on a rope tied around a tree). I ran rope through the pullies and tied the rope to the insulators at each end of the antenna, as well as to the (off)center connection box support. So, the ropes hoist the antenna up and the antenna itself never touches a tree. We had to take off some limbs that could maybe touch the antenna wire if they blew around, but that was no big deal. I use a nautical cleat screwed to the tree trunks to secure the rope after hoisting the antenna. One end is not secured, but it has a weight tied to it to allow movement when the trees sway.

Highly recommend the IC-7300 for your base station HF radio.

A dipole in those trees would work. Not perfect, but good enough. Not sure where the house is located but this might be a good situation to use an end fed antenna so that your coax run is as short as possible. I like the MFJ-1982MP (worked great with my IC-7300), but there are plenty of other good ones. That specific antenna is resonant on all the major bands so even if the trees offer you a slightly different SWR the internal tuner will handle it just fine.

Go with the IC-7300. FWIW, my other radio is a loaded Elecraft K3 and for almost all operating, I have no preference of one other the other.

As for the antenna, can you hang an Inverted Vee from the tower? You could make a multi-band one, or buy one ready made. The Alpha Delta DX-CC will cover 80-10 Meters, exclusive of the WARC bands.

Because of the design, the antenna tends to be narrow-banded on 80, though.

I can see a nice 43 foot DXE vertical in that back yard.

IM sent

This, except mine are an 80m doublet and a 40m dipole. I'm in the planning stages for a 160m full wave loop that will also go through some trees, I am not concerned in the least.

I’ve spent 20 years of my ham radio hobby using dipoles IN trees.  5BDXCC and over 300 countries.  Use insulated wire and you’ll be fine.

A good starter antenna would be an 40 & 20 Meter fan dipole with capacitance hats to the 40 Meter elements to improve the match on the 'phone segment of the 15 Meter band (the 40 Meter part acts as a 3/2 wave radiator on 15).

This time of the year, the QRN is getting so bad on 80 as to make the band a real PITA to operate (unless you use CW), and with the sunspot cycle in the doldrums for the next 2-3 years, 10 will be iffy at best. You'll have time to make other arrangements as winter approaches and Cycle 25 (hopefully) ramps up.


I've done the same, and two of the trees were Magnolias with big, heavy leaves that never shed. No problems whatsoever, even when running a 600 Watt amplifier.

I’m in the trees and I have no trouble working Japan.  Maybe the Drake L4B helps…

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@glockfan68
1/2 square?
73,
Rob

Well step 1 is complete.  Purchased an Icom 7300 today used for $800.

When I hear guys on the radio talking about their gear, the number of people using 7300s is amazing.

Icom got the jump on the rest of the market by offering cutting edge technology and performance at a ~$1000 pricetag.
The rest have been slow catching up.

As stated in a previous post, I have a K3 loaded with options that cost well over X3 what the 7300 sells for. For 95% of my operating, I have no preference for one over the other.

I was initially wanting to do an inverted L but it just ended up this way.  It seems to work well so I just left it as is.  I may shoot a line over one more tree and get rid of the 1/2 square…

I have had my dipole in the trees with insulated wire for 15 years. Worked the world with 100 watts and with 10 watts when I had my Icom 703.
Have used up to 800 watts of power when needed.

About a month ago heavy snow brought a tree down along with one leg of the antenna.

Have a spare- just need to get it up back in the trees.
Suburban lot and the wire disappears  in the trees.
Great stealth antenna.
Always worked great for me.

Random thoughts:

Looks like Mahoning County.  (I grew up in Columbiana Co...)

I like my 7300.  I liked my 7200 and 7100 too.

A good antenna has always been my best bang for the buck for me.

Redbirdxx mentioned a loop.   A loop could be used in the trees, but be hung w/o getting tangled in the branches.

If I had a perma-tower, I'd toss one of those antennas on it to add a multiband resonant HF one.  (This IS a gun board, where we pride ourselves on filling gun safes w/o the XYL knowing! Perhaps those lessons could be implemented here....)