A Question for the Antenna Gurus

[W3WN]

I find myself using the Inverted L for 160 also on 80/40/20 with the tuner at the base.
< snip >
Have fun putting your shack in, i hope we even might make a nice QSO.
;)

I like my Inverted L (although these days it's vertical leg is more like half a V) especially on 160. It needs more radials. Sad to say, I don't think I'm going to have it for more than another year or two. The tree it's hanging from belongs to a neighbor (which I'm using with permission), but that tree is not in good shape. Last year it got 2 visits from a tree service and looks today to be close to dead, and if that's the case, it will be gone soon.

Even if it's not removed, well, my neighbors are very nice people, but they're both elderly (in their 80's) and not in the best of health. While we don't know when, um, the inevitable will happen, it will happen. Or their kids may place them in a care facility. So the day may come when other circumstances, shall we say, remove my permission to use the tree or what's left of it.

I'm looking into additional options. I have an old Mosley beam in storage, but it needs a lot of TLC before it ever goes in the air again. And that's presuming that I can get a small tower in the back yard at some point; not a zoning issue, but a combination of a wife issue and a wallet issue. I'm also looking at some of the Spiderbeam antennas and similar configuartions (Hex Beams too), and those ought to be light enough to go on my three foot tripod and be placed up on the roof. Shekels again come into play there. But I'll figure something out.

I'm open for skeds, especially on the weekends. How are you fixed for 17 meters?

[W1GUH]

'WN said:

Even if it's not removed, well, my neighbors are very nice people, but they're both elderly (in their 80's) and not in the best of health. While we don't know when, um, the inevitable will happen, it will happen. Or their kids may place them in a care facility. So the day may come when other circumstances, shall we say, remove my permission to use the tree or what's left of it.

Magnet wire supported with fishing line is invisible. Problem solved.

[KG4CGC]

'WN said:




Magnet wire supported with fishing line is invisible. Problem solved.

Until the tree comes down.
London Bridges?

[W3WN]

'WN said:

Even if it's not removed, well, my neighbors are very nice people, but they're both elderly (in their 80's) and not in the best of health. While we don't know when, um, the inevitable will happen, it will happen. Or their kids may place them in a care facility. So the day may come when other circumstances, shall we say, remove my permission to use the tree or what's left of it.

Magnet wire supported with fishing line is invisible. Problem solved.

Ah, no. Nice thought, but what you have to realize is that the inverted L starts at the top of the chain link fence (well, at the end of an insulator attached to the fence actually) which is on the property line. And I mean ON the property line, possibly on the wrong side of it. The people we bought the house from, suffice to say that they were less than careful when putting the fence up (her brother the professional handyman? I've seen his handywork. He can be handy somewhere else).

So, even with magnet wire, it would be very hard to hide. And that's assuming that, if and when the property next door has new residents, I don't have to move the fence. I might be required to (and it needs replacing at some point anyway).

With any luck, this will not be a problem I'll have to face for many years. But you never know.

[KJ3N]

Magnet wire supported with fishing line is invisible. Problem solved.

Visibility isn't the issue. The tree as a support structure would appear to be in jeopardy.

[W1GUH]

Ah, no. Nice thought, but what you have to realize is that the inverted L starts at the top of the chain link fence (well, at the end of an insulator attached to the fence actually) which is on the property line. And I mean ON the property line, possibly on the wrong side of it. The people we bought the house from, suffice to say that they were less than careful when putting the fence up (her brother the professional handyman? I've seen his handywork. He can be handy somewhere else).

So, even with magnet wire, it would be very hard to hide. And that's assuming that, if and when the property next door has new residents, I don't have to move the fence. I might be required to (and it needs replacing at some point anyway).

With any luck, this will not be a problem I'll have to face for many years. But you never know.

Can't start it somewhere where you don't have property line issues?

[W1GUH]

Visibility isn't the issue. The tree as a support structure would appear to be in jeopardy.

But til then....

[WØTKX]

Any suggestions on a software app to look for?

I play around with an earlier free version of EZ-NEC. It's pretty limited, but something of a standard out there. I don't know if the free/trial versions would model what you are trying to do. Might be worth trying.Maybe add a big brass eagle on top as a "capacity hat"?

[PA5COR]

That sucks....
No trees here to use for the inverted L, you probably saw the aluminium mast i build behind the house, in the antenna section.
That one will be "grow" a little larger and much stronger, new aramide guy wire etc.
Build originally for 160, the added MFJ 998 tuner has no sweat to tune it flat on the other bands, but on 20 it is or the OCF or the L, depending on conditions etc., higher as 20 it is or the FD-4 OCF from Fritzel, or the Imax 2000 with 15 feet long wire radials on the roof as vertical.
I can chose for all bands between the horizontal FD-4 ( 160-10) or a vertical, L or Imax.
Lets try a frequency there and a time, i can make 800 watts there at ease.
You make the suggestion freq/time, i'll adapt ;)


If you can doctor your Mosley beam back to life, you will have an good edge over my pithy antenna set up ;)
I have only 2 chimney's to use here in the block of 6 houses here, one has the 6/2/70 beams and Diamond X510N, the other the Imax and diamond discone antenna used as antenna for the FT-100 radio.

I like my Inverted L (although these days it's vertical leg is more like half a V) especially on 160. It needs more radials. Sad to say, I don't think I'm going to have it for more than another year or two. The tree it's hanging from belongs to a neighbor (which I'm using with permission), but that tree is not in good shape. Last year it got 2 visits from a tree service and looks today to be close to dead, and if that's the case, it will be gone soon.

Even if it's not removed, well, my neighbors are very nice people, but they're both elderly (in their 80's) and not in the best of health. While we don't know when, um, the inevitable will happen, it will happen. Or their kids may place them in a care facility. So the day may come when other circumstances, shall we say, remove my permission to use the tree or what's left of it.

I'm looking into additional options. I have an old Mosley beam in storage, but it needs a lot of TLC before it ever goes in the air again. And that's presuming that I can get a small tower in the back yard at some point; not a zoning issue, but a combination of a wife issue and a wallet issue. I'm also looking at some of the Spiderbeam antennas and similar configuartions (Hex Beams too), and those ought to be light enough to go on my three foot tripod and be placed up on the roof. Shekels again come into play there. But I'll figure something out.

I'm open for skeds, especially on the weekends. How are you fixed for 17 meters?

[w0aew]

I've used those 4-foot long, snap-together fiberglass poles to put up a 36-foot-tall support, with a 34-foot long wire taped to the outside of one side of the pole and about a 17-foot wire on the other side. I used around 10 radials of varying random lengths between 10 and 40 feet. I tack-soldered the coax to the ends of the wires and snipped off bits (and re-soldering) the vertical wires until the SWR was around 1:1 in the CW portions of 40 and 20 meters. The whole thing was bungee-corded to a sapling with a few guy wires.

A wind storm finally tore up the fiberglass, and it all came down. But it did work great for a couple years.