[Antennas] Optimal longwire for QRP

[Charles Greene]

At 07:44 PM 5/11/2002 -0700, Lloyd Lachow wrote:

LLoyd,

I have two antennas supported by trees.  I first tried the weight and 
pulley, but the motion of the tree was so violent that the wire, #22 grey 
insulated stranded, kept breaking.  So I replaced it with #14 wire.  I also 
added six 36" shock cords in parallel to take up the shock of the tree when 
it moved at the end opposite the tree.  The antenna is 60' to the house 
from the tree and another 25' down to the ground where I have a balun and 
three counter poises.  Last summer I added a G5RV antenna to another 
tree.  I just used a pulley to pull it up and let the six shock take up the 
shock of the tree.  Still up after some 50 knot gusts.  The G5RV works 
better than the wire, but it about 10' higher.

>I've just gotten a K-1(with a tuner), and want to put
>up a longwire. I've been using an HW-7, with a 90' 14
>ga. stranded wire that goes out the shack window, up
>and into the attic, and around the inside of the roof,
>and a tuner. With the 2 watts and primitive receiver,
>I worked a bunch of DX up to about 8000 mi, getting
>559s. Now I'd like to see what happens with a longer
>wire, higher and outside. Here are the questions:
>Since I need to balance invisibility, or nearly so,
>(for the XYL) with breakage resistance, I'd like to
>use a smallish gauge wire, and I'd like some input on
>wire sizing. I'll use insulated wire to reduce the
>effects of chafing. I'm going to toss it up 30-40'
>into a tree next to the window, then across to another
>tree... I've got some land, and the second tree is the
>beginning of the woods, so I could theoretically run
>the wire from tree to tree to tree...How long is best?
>Should I expect more gain with more length? Should I
>be concerned with the exact length, to avoid multiples
>or fractions of resonant frequencies? Any ideas about
>a good way to terminate the wire that would be secure,
>but allow for movement of the trees in the wind?
>Thanks!

73, Chas, W1CG