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Message |
    
Mikefromms
Advanced Member
Username: Mikefromms
Post Number: 995
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 - 12:06 pm: | 
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I took the dive and constructed a 530 feet long 160 meter loop in my backyard and out to the side of the house. Takes lots of room. I feed it with 450 ohm ladder line and hook to a current balun just outside my shack window and hook rg8x coax (only about 6 feet) from there to my radio tuner. Getting great reports. The antenna is too low for any really exceptions performance on 160 but makes up for that on 80 meters and above!
To get you up and going fast, you could build a simple dipole of #12 or lighter wires of the same length and hang it up just out of reach of people. Formula for wire length is 468/frequecy and divide that by 2 to get you even sided lengths. Insulate the wires apart in the middle where you will connect one line of your feeder to one side and the other feeder wire to the other sided. Insulate the ends and tie them off. The higher the better for dx, but for local stuff (your area to several hundred miles) even as low as 15 feet or lower it will give you surprising results. Oh, give that ladder line a try.
But I'm really sold on my loop for now. There's so much you can do with wire. I'm sure other hams have their favorite antennas like the inverted-v, but I don't want to write a book here. The ARRL already has an excellent book on feedlines and antennas. I do, however, like to share and help you cut to the chase, so to speak.
Mikefromms |
Mikefromms
Advanced Member
Username: Mikefromms
Post Number: 998
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - 9:57 pm: |
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My next project is a double bazooka inverted v made from coax. These are really quiet antennas and work as good as wire antenna. Advantage? Lower noise floor.
Mikefromms |
Mikefromms
Senior Member
Username: Mikefromms
Post Number: 1056
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, August 26, 2010 - 10:41 am: |
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If you are in a HOA community, then get you an end fed from Par Electronics, you won't be disappointed. |
Mikefromms
Senior Member
Username: Mikefromms
Post Number: 1100
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2011 - 11:37 pm: |
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If you want a good all band 160 thru 6 meters antenna that is low profile get you a good end fed antenna tuner (coupler) such as SGC, Yaesu FC-40 or AH-4 by Icom (my favorite) and attach 90 ft plus ft of wire and a ground on the other end or maybe some long length of wire along the side of the house as a counterpoise and you are in business! It cost something but really is nice to push a button on a modern HF rig and just tune up a band. I've talked on 160 thru 6 with good results. Even the most restricted area can get away with a really thin wire in the air. The feed line is the hardest part to hide. The end fed antenna eliminates that issue. |
Tech833
Moderator
Username: Tech833
Post Number: 1904
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, January 16, 2011 - 8:16 pm: |
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What you describe sounds like a simple random wire (longwire) end fed antenna.
Not ideal, but certainly better than nothing for just getting on the air. SWLs have used longwires with great success for a hundred years.
Your radio 'Mythbuster' since 1998
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Mikefromms
Senior Member
Username: Mikefromms
Post Number: 1114
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 7:36 pm: |
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I learned a lot when I lived in the prison community (covenants). Now I can put up what I want and really love just building and trying new stuff. Learning to like ladder line. |
