[600MRG] Free standing verticals

[Dave Riley]

Hi Ben,

I am a convinced vertical wire loop TX user..  It is  my best effort 
thus far, costs just a few bux for _ONE_ piece of wire ( 500' ) and uses 
a surplus vacuum variable cap. to resonate... Uses a simple toroid 
insertion for feeding from any point...
I started with 80m center fed and that worked well but the loop has been 
a boom, not to mention the lower noise on RX...
Then think of all the radials and other wires not needed, and no need 
for lossy loading coils... UGH, too much hardware, too many 'fires' etc...

It barely detunes if at all during inclement weather and has operated 
trouble free for 12 years now, no insulators just shot up in to the 
trees and around branches...

I have to ask those on here if there is any advantage to using 2 or more 
turns as I have not tried that yet.. Any inputs??

The loop 'speaks' for itself and I can tune it all the way down to 17.2 
kcs. for SAQ and anything in between...

Hope this helps,

73s from DaveR @ aa1a






On 2/8/2018 12:10 AM, Ben Gelb wrote:
> Thanks all for the replies.
>
> Yard is 30' wide by perhaps 45' deep behind my rental house in San 
> Francisco. There is one tree of substantial height (the one thats 
> going away) on one corner of the yard (up against mine and my 
> neighbor's house on the east side of me). That currently gives me 
> about 30' of vertical for my inverted L, and then I have a fiberglass 
> fishing pole supporting the end of the top-hat about 30' away from the 
> vertical. (this inverted L is my only transmitting antenna currently, 
> but for MF and HF - I also have a couple of small receiving loops on a 
> rotatable base at ground level)
>
> With the tree gone will need to provide my own structure, and I would 
> prefer to avoid a lot of guying if possible, as there's not a lot of 
> room for it, and it will really consume the entire yard. I was 
> thinking to sink a 4x4 or 6x6 post into the ground (i have a post-hole 
> digger) and then maybe attach some sort of mast to it, hopefully stiff 
> enough to not need any guying (or at least not much). Alternatively, 
> the DX Engineering MBVA-5A looks like it might be a reasonable option, 
> albeit perhaps a bit more expensive than some home-depot option 
> (ostensibly it doesn't require guying).
>
> If I were to kludge up some set of metal pipes and tubes, I wonder how 
> I might mount it to a wooden post - I'm thinking a wooden post might 
> not be a great dielectric (tree sure wasn't) and might lead to some 
> burning. Anybody tackled that problem?
>
> I do have some of the 4' military mast sections (mine are aluminum not 
> fiberglass though) but I think they'll get pretty floppy over 15-20' 
> or so w/o some guying...
>
> Neighbor mentioned being open to draping a wire over his house if it 
> helped.... but I think more useful would be expanding the radial field 
> throughout his backyard... haven't broached that subject. He might be 
> less excited about that.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 5:35 AM, Dave Riley <dave.riley3 at verizon.net 
> <mailto:dave.riley3 at verizon.net>> wrote:
>
>     Hello Ben,
>
>     Can you give us more info concerning your real estate plot such as
>     square footage, relationship to power lines, existing antennas,
>     size and height of your home, any neighbors who would allow you to
>     span their property, or any obstructions that would be in the way
>     of an antenna and lastly what you have for antennas for ham use at
>     this time?
>
>     Are you presently using any sort of loop or probe antenna for receive?
>
>     All the answers to your quest so far sound workable so maybe a mix
>     or some kind of a modification could allow you to enjoy the new band.
>
>     Thanks from DaveR @ aa1a
>
>
>
>     On 2/4/2018 7:11 PM, Ben Gelb wrote:
>
>         My neighbor is taking down my antenna tree ... possibly this
>         week :(.
>
>         Its actually the right thing - the tree is very unbalanced and
>         needs to go. But it means my undersized antenna will be even
>         smaller (gone) soon...
>
>         Seems like I may need to try to get something in the air that
>         doesn't require a tree or permanent support structure. I can
>         probably fashion some kind of vertical pole out of cheap
>         materials, but imagine it will require a lot of guys to remain
>         vertical - which I'd kind of like to avoid since I don't have
>         a lot of room for guys.
>
>         Any suggestions from this group?
>
>
>

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