NEED WIRE ANTENNA IDEAS FOR SINGLE SUPPORT

[K7NCR]

Hi gang! I just had to move again (just moved last August, AHHHGG!)I plan on putting up my 35 foot aluminum tower with the 2M ringo on it. May put it on a raised base (2 55 gal drums welded top to bottom, bottom one full of water/antifreeze mix) behind my garage, very near the future shack location. I have about 250 ft of my home brew open wire, and want to feed a wire antenna with it, less than 50 ft run. Would the remaining ladder line make good inverted V? Any thoughts from this most excellent group? Thanks in advance!
Norm K7NCR

[WQ9E]

Norm,

Although you could use your remaining ladder line for the legs of the V instead I would suggest buying some fairly cheap #14 or #16 wire from a local building or farm supply store.  That way you can save your remaining ladder line from unnecessary wear and have it for future antenna projects where you need a longer feedline.

Depending upon your local weather (wind and ice loading) you could probably get away with buying some of the multi-wire flat rotor cable and separating it into individual wires for the V.  This stuff used to be available very cheaply from Wal Mart and similar stores and probably still can be found there.

Since you are using ladder line and I assume are using a tuner at the "shack" you have a lot of leeway in choosing the length of the elements.

Rodger WQ9E

[WA1GFZ]

Save the feed line and buy some wire. it is still fairly cheap.
I prefer a horizontal vee over an inverted vee close to the ground.  I find an inverted vee with the ends close to the ground doesn't work very well on the lower bands.

[K5UJ]

Hi Norm,

This is a tough one.  It would help me if you said what band(s) you want to operate.  Is the Al tower really your one and only support?  No tree or chimney mount or tripod on a roof that could hold a little mast?    I really hesitate to recommend an inverted vee because I don't like them -- I think there's too much loss at the ends near ground.   If the tower top section can accommodate 3 feet of 2.5' o.d. tube, any chance of going up with 20 feet of Al tubing?  Then you perhaps try some kind of sloper lightly tensioned if you could get a long section of tubing.   Actually two more lattice sections would be even better and perhaps easier to get delivered.

Rob K5UJ

[K1JJ]

May put it on a raised base (2 55 gal drums welded top to bottom, bottom one full of water/antifreeze mix) behind my garage, very near the future shack location.

Norm,

Hmmm... climbing a tower with the base being an above ground drum filled with water (about 400 pounds) makes me shiver.  How about if you added a set of guy wires at the 10' level as a secondary safety?   Just a set of 2' holes spaced out 10' each, filled with two bags of concrete each will do wonders for stability.  Use scrap angle steel with a 'T' -  1/2" bolt on the rod end in the concrete for the three anchor rods.

Or maybe it's just used as a mast with rope/pulley you don't intend to climb?

T

[K7NCR]

Thanks for the input so far.
 I plan on attaching the tower at the base and were it passes the eave on the back of the garage, about 5 ft above the base. I planed on an arm (wood) extending sideways from the top of the tower. I can go up further, and mount the ringo higher, and take off from that height. A yardarm and pulley will eliminate climbing, as I can't do heights! 
I have the 500 ft of 14 ga wire I had as the sloping delta at the former QTH I can use. I could go  out horizontally, and maybe put up another pair of masts, 1 on the opposite end of the nearby house, and another on the other end of the garage. I would have a loop like a right triangle, maybe 200 ft all told (I will have to take some measurements). I would prefer that to a sloper or V with ends near the ground, as I have 3 kids to take into consideration. Open line will feed my tuner on the shack, about 1 foot from the window I'll come in thru.
Keep the ideas coming! and Thanks!
Norm K7NCR

[K7NCR]

Has anyone tried the short antenna, I think it was posted here, by KB3AHE. 60 ft legs, folded dipole style with 12 in spreaders?
Norm K7NCR

[The Slab Bacon]

Has anyone tried the short antenna, I think it was posted here, by KB3AHE. 60 ft legs, folded dipole style with 12 in spreaders?
Norm K7NCR

I've been running the original one since 2000. Same feeders, spreaders, and support ropes!

Karl, KD3CN is using one, and a few others that dont post here. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do when you are "space challenged" 

                                               the Slab Bacon (aka KB3AHE)

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Why not use the tower as a loaded vertical for the Band of interest? insulate the base since its off the ground anyway?

[KD6VXI]

Why not use the tower as a loaded vertical for the Band of interest? insulate the base since its off the ground anyway?

Not to hijack, but since losing my 20 acres of radio freedom, and the full sized 160 ladder line dipole, that's what I planned on doing.

I've got a 32 foot piece of aluminim pole (an old 3/4 wave CB vertical) that I planned on putting on top of my 40 foot crank up...  2 section Tri-Ex tower.

What do you guys recommend to do for the electric bond between the two sections?  That's whats got me stumped.  I live 12 miles from the ocean, so I need something that won't allow the fog to penetrate (I'm sure it has a high salt content, I'm in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Northern California).  I just redid the base of the tower, where rust had barely started... The rest of the towers galvanization is 100 percent, so I left it alone...  Wire brushed the bottom foot / 18 inches, and rustoleum type painted it.  Can hardly tell, other than the primer gray is a bit darker than the galv..

I was thinking of a clamp, but anything that bites, will kill the galv....

Open to ideas, a 75 foot vertical would be nice...

Incidentally, I'm in a 900' ASL, surrounded on 3 sides by 2K= foot of mountains. Definately NOT my 6500 foot perch I had before.  I'll be putting up a dipole when health allows me to climb mother natures 140 foot tall towers, I mean, redwoods, surrounding the house... BUT, that's about a year away.  The tower I could do in a weekend.

Thanks, in advance.

---Shane

[K7NCR]

Why not use the tower as a loaded vertical for the Band of interest? insulate the base since its off the ground anyway?

Maybe at some point, but for now radials would be hard to do without the kids diggin' em up and trying to tie up the cat with em!

[W1AEX]

I agree with Frank's notion regarding the horizontal vee configuration vs. an inverted vee with ends near the ground. Keeping the ends of a horizontal antenna at least 40-50 feet off the ground does seem to help on the lower bands. My center-fed 160 meter antenna doesn't even remotely resemble a straight line from above as it zig zags through the trees at between 50 - 70 feet, but it seems to work fine for high angle work.

Bob, K1KBW seems to be having really good success with his center-fed 200 foot wire up high, with the last 40 feet on each side hanging down vertically. The vertical portion seems to give him some low angle advantages while the horizontal portion fills in well for high angle work. That type of arrangement could be scaled down to what your available area offers. I'm thinking of trying it with a 40 meter dipole in a vertical U type of configuration in an attempt to gain some low angle component to my signal. Perhaps a 33 foot run where it is center-fed and then 16 feet hanging down vertically on each end.

On the other hand, I had excellent results with the single support system shown in the little picture below!

[K7NCR]

Well, up goes the little tower today, with my son's help. I put a piece of pressure treated 2x4 on it for a yard-arm, with a pulley and nylon rope. Then I'll streach out some wire in a couple of directions and see what I can make work. I'll keep posting here as I progress with the job. Thanks again for all the Ideas!
Happy Labor Day!
 Norm K7NCR

[flintstone mop]

How's about a sloper?
I don't think you have enough vert height for 160 or 80M.

Fred

[K7NCR]

Here is a layout of my area, drawn approx. to scale. I am thinking of a double length double dipole like discussed earlier. 60 feet on each side, fed with open wire feeder. I plan on using the utility pole to support one leg.(I think I can get away with it for a while, we live out in the boonies.) 30 feet at high center my aluminum tower, and 20 feet at each end. I prefer site A, and plan on a yard light on an old power pole there anyway. Site B is another option, and would use a steel antenna mast there. Can anybody model the layout and see if one is preferable to the other? Maybe I should use A & B and make a narrow V and forgo the utility pole? Your thoughts, o Great Gurus of the Ether!
Norm K7NCR
PS: My QRZ page has a good satellite image of my "little house on the little hill", so I am a little higher than the surrounding a.rea