Call fer Papers

[KB2WIG]

 I've been doing an exercise on how I'd populate a small area with cheep antennas........   the lot is a rectangle 650'X150', running due east to west. The property slopes  approx. 100' feet in the westward direction. It is covered with standing timber. I don't have a 'survey' of the standing timber at this time; I don't know if the wood-o-lean is crap, or how high it is...  And I want to cover ALL the bands...  right ...  160m would be nice to try with all the room,  80m probably the most usefull band...  i do work 6 and 10, and will pbobably do 2m stuff as its at 1120' asl.......... any ideas?   any usefull ideas? any usefull ideas r/e the question?

klc

[AF9J]

Since you're talking about a 160-2m antenna, I'll assume that to meet the 160m capability requirement, the antenna is a long, wire antenna.  I've used long wire antennas on 6 & 2. On 6 they can work pretty well, but with the mulitple lobes, can be very directional.  As for 2m - what kind of 2m operating are you considering to do?  If it's the local FM repeater, you may be OK (although it might be tough to match the antenna).  But, it you're thinking of doing, AM, SSB,  or CW, where most hams use horizontally polarized antennas, you may have issues.  Not only with multiple lobes giving you hyper directivity, but with cross polarization losses (which can be as much as 30 dB).  If any portion of the antenna (or feedline [if it's radiating]) is vertical, you may end up with a situation I had couple of years ago, with my present HF antenna (a single wire fed, 150 ft long rain gutter).  It works pretty good on 6m (I think it has some gain, due tpo its size).  But when I tired it on 2m SSB & CW a couple of years ago, it worked poorly, due to the fact that it acted as a vertical, with a huge tophat.  It took a few QSOs with some of the locals on 2m SSB, for me to discover this.  I did what limited screwing around with my HF antenna I could, but it didn't help much.  As a result, I ended up switching to a small 2m/70cm log periodic (I also do 432 MHz weak signal stuff).

Conversely, you may end up with a great performing 2m antenna.  Steve Katz, WB2WIK, wrote years ago, about how he used a 70 foot long dipole when he was younger, on 2m, and it worked great.  All you can do is give your HF antenna a try on 6 & 2m.  Antenna modeling programs will tell you to an extent about how it will behave on 6 & 2m, but, due to the large amount of unpredictability on 2m & above (and 6m to a lesser extent), you won't know for sure, until you try it out.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[KB2WIG]

I guess I need to clarify a bit.... most of my 2m CB work is with a jpole...  With all this space, I was thinking of more than one antenna... 

A shorty phased verticals on 160? maybe a 80m bobtail?  v beams ? rhombics? curtains? Is the slope of the land an opportunity or a problem?

The question is too broad, kinda like, "I got a garage, what kinda car do I need"........

klc

[WA1GFZ]

Vee beam

[AF9J]

V-beams are cool.  I made & used what I call a shortie V-beam (it wasn't a wavelength [or longer]  in size) for 6m in the 90s.  I had good results with it, and it was small enough to turn for directivity. V-veams will give you gain compared to a dipole.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[WA1GFZ]

I had a 2 wire one then I was a kid. 125 feet on a leg facing VK land.
I strapped there with a 4X1 on 20 CW.

[flintstone mop]

Git yourself a sling shot and start getting as much wire as you can up in the air. For 160M get at least 90 feet (min) on each side of center and feed with open ladder line. And use or build a big tuna.You have a nice piece of land for various types of aerials, as others are mentioning here. You did not tell us how high the timber is.
Directional antennas start about 60 feet high on 40M .....everything else below 40M is just a cloud warmer and will get you out about 300-600 miles. DX aerials will always be Yagis or verticals or even dipoles or Vees with the low sunspot time we are in on the low bands for the next coupla years.
OR clear the land and put up a Rhombic or curtains or some 100 foot towers, but that's some $$$$

fred

[WA1GFZ]

My Vee was at 25 feet and it kicked butt on 20m. Most Rhombics want to be at 60 feet.

[WU2D]

I did a simple 1 lambda (66 ft) Vee Beam out back for 20M and fed it with a quarter wave matching section of open wire line with a knife switch on the end hanging down where I could just reach it.

I made a balun out of a large core and fed it with coax to the shack. I tapped up the line with the 200 Ohm balanced side until I had a perfect match.  For 10M all I had to do was open the switch. The match for 10M was almost exactly in the right spot.

An open half wave section = a shorted quarter wave section.

For 15M and 17M I had to move the tap points of course.

Mike WU2D