Posted: 5/13/2010 10:35:03 AM EDT
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Well, looks like I'm finally going to get some antennas setup at the house. I'd like to put up a VHF/UHF antenna, broadband scanner antenna, and some sort of wire antenna for HF (G5RV, Carolina Windom, ???). The first two are easy; I'm thinking a Diamond X50NA and Diamond D130NJ on a mast. Any thoughts on what would be suitable for mounting those at a reasonable height with a minimum of permanent infrastructure? I'm not sure if the Max-Gain fiberglass masts are suited for this or not...
The HF wire gives me a few options: Sloping NW to SE from tall tree to short tree, ~150 foot max Inverted V on same path, with mast in center Inverted V SW to NE (no trees, so probably a pole at either end), with mast in center, ~100 foot max The latter option keeps things constrained to the back yard, while the first two pass somewhat over the house and terminate in the front yard. This isn't ideal, but may be my best option. If I need to run a mast for the other two antennas, using it to achieve an inverted-V is probably the best way of getting the antenna high...I just need a mast capable of supporting all three. My initial thoughts are to put the VHF/UHF at the top, mount the wire antenna just below, and put the scanner antenna down 10 feet or so to avoid interference. Thoughts on this overall configuration? |
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X50 on a mast, get a $27 radio shack antenna and mount in the attic for the scanner, then figure out your HF line.
if your dead set on the discone rat shack sells the same basic antenna(same freq's) for $75 http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103160 |
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Here's what I have:
1) Inverted vee tri-band dipole (trapped for 40-20-15). Apex about 35'. 2) Random wire from a 1:1 balun (runs about 25' from the house and makes a L across the yard for another 65' or so) <–– I use this more than anything and have great results 3) Hustler 5BTV vertical 4) X200 mounted to the chimney 5) Cushcraft 4-ele 2M beam on a 30' alum mast mounted to the eave I also have a 11-ele 2M beam but I'm not using it at the moment. |
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Quoted:
Depending on where your ham shack is, a fan dipole or OCF dipole from the NW tree to the SE tree would be convenient for getting the feedline into your house. Yes, and the long leg would not necessarily have to be straight, either. OP could put a roof mounted tripod to support his 2m antenna, and also tie off from that for the legs of his Windom. |
Make the short leg 41' (going out to the front yard tree). Make the long leg about 91', but you'll probably end up trimming it back to 89'. 89' + 41' = 130' overall. 468 / 130' = 3.600 Mhz. If you can borrow an antenna analyzer, that will help. If not, just cut the long end to 89', short end 41' and call it a day. And since the Carolina Windom works on even multiples, that means it should also resonate at 7.200 Mhz and 14.400 Mhz. So, you'll need a tuner to get 80 meters up into the General phone portion of the band, 3.8-4.0 Mhz. 40 meters, you're close to the middle of the phone portion, the tuner for a little touchup. 20 meters, the antenna is high, resonating just over the 20 meter band, so a tuner will help bring it down a bit. But that should work well overall. Balun: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/antsup/1888.html You want #1888, the 4:1 balun. Insulators: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/antsup/4818.html http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/antsup/3250.html Just below the balun you want 10 ferrite beads, from Palomar-Engineers.com, FSB-1/4 for .200"-.240" dia coax, LMR-200, LMR-240, RG-8X, RG-58, etc. For larger coax, FSB-1/2. Same ferrites are sold at HamCity.com as RCT-2 and RCT-4. See this thread: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=22&t=632450 This is the same antenna BigDaddy is putting up. http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=22&t=627490&page=7 You can skip the Anderson PowerPoles as you will be doing a permanent installation, not hanging out of the window of a college dorm... hahaha! Read BigDaddy's thread and do most of what he is doing, but skip field stripping the balun part. 
Tape/insulate the end of the wire up in the tree in the back. That is high voltage, and you don't want to burn the tree down. This happened to a friend of mine. When he said, "I think I'll put a little 'fire in the wire'" and cranked up his amp, little did he know... until the neighbor called and said, "Did you know your tree is on fire?" 
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Quoted:
This is the same antenna BigDaddy is putting up. http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=22&t=627490&page=7 Read BigDaddy's thread and do most of what he is doing, but skip field stripping the balun part.
 
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