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Posted: 6/13/2011 9:26:13 AM EST
OK guys, as I have mentioned before, I plan on relocating to a small town in Central Iowa. It may not be for a while at the rate things are going (don't ask), but it's still going to happen eventually. Here's a google maps photo of what I have to work with:



The red lines, marked A, B, and C, represent power lines. A comes in from across the street and connects to a pole (the white spot where A & B connect). B runs from the pole to the house, and C runs from the house to the garage, aka future radio room/gun room/man cave/den of iniquity.

The green line is a rough approximation of the property line/usable space I have to work with.

While I have a pretty good idea of what I'd like to do, I'm curious as to what YOU guys would do with this space? Feel free to download, edit with ms-paint (the preferred image editor of arfcom), and show me what you'd do. The ONLY caveats are no beam/tower combinations that exceed $5000.

And before you ask, I don't know if this town has any zoning ordinances against antennas, but my guess is it will be dissolving its incorporation fairly soon anyway so its a moot point.

Have at it.

Link Posted: 6/13/2011 9:40:23 AM EST
[#1]
Depending on tree height (and your ability to exceed it) I'd slap a tower in the opening in the middle. It's not too hard to come up with a free tower (I've gotten 4-5 in the past couple of years). Run some good coax and spend the money saved on a nice beam.
Link Posted: 6/13/2011 12:10:23 PM EST
[#2]
Is power line "A" the 240V drop from transformer on the street or 7000+V power line voltage?
Link Posted: 6/13/2011 1:57:44 PM EST
[#3]



Quoted:


OK guys, as I have mentioned before, I plan on relocating to a small town in Central Iowa.



I could use Iowa for WAS, so hurry up!



 
Link Posted: 6/13/2011 2:40:55 PM EST
[#4]



Quoted:





Quoted:

OK guys, as I have mentioned before, I plan on relocating to a small town in Central Iowa.



I could use Iowa for WAS, so hurry up!

 


me too, need ND?

 
Link Posted: 6/13/2011 4:52:56 PM EST
[#5]



Quoted:





Quoted:




Quoted:

OK guys, as I have mentioned before, I plan on relocating to a small town in Central Iowa.



I could use Iowa for WAS, so hurry up!

 


me too, need ND?  


That, too.  And Kentucky.



 
Link Posted: 6/13/2011 5:25:18 PM EST
[#6]
Like mentioned before, towers are easy to come by...just look up and start asking around. Here is what I would start with. Not seeing the property in person makes it hard to judge distance and tree height.


I'm working on my antenna "farm" for the BOL in MS paint also...
Link Posted: 6/13/2011 8:59:12 PM EST
[#7]
Towers?  Towers?  He don' need no stinkin' towers!  

He's got trees!
Link Posted: 6/21/2011 9:44:43 AM EST
[#8]
I posted this a week ago, and then promptly forgot about it while studying for the Extra. Here's what I've got in mind for the place:



OK, first things that have to go are the power lines. Ideally, I'd like to have the feed line ran to a pole (marked A) and then ran underground into the house (see the green feedlines on the photo). Yes, I realize this could be a major pain, but so be it. The feeder line to the garage should be much more doable. At worst case scenario, I leave the power lines feeding the house in place and bury the feeder line to the garage.

After that's done, I'd ideally like to put up telephone poles at the locations marked with T. These would be the supports for a sky loop antenna. With using just the three poles, I will have pretty good 80 meter coverage. If the feeder lines get buried, I would add 160m by using the tree at the entrance to the driveway as a fourth support.  Why telephone poles? Well, this is Iowa you know. They're just about weather proof, and are probably the cheapest way to get anything that high in the air without guy wires. If any storm comes along and knocks them over, I will have more important things to worry about than getting back on HF.

The location marked B would be where the hex beam will live. That will give me coverage for 20 through 10, and probably where a VHF vertical will live too. I'm thinking about a guyed push up mast for this.

What do you guys think, doable? About the only concern I have are any interactions between the beam antenna and the loop. I think it would be far enough away, but it's still a concern.

Curious to see what everyone thinks.

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