[Antennas] All steel 26ga roof

[PaulKB8N at aol.com]

My experience with metal roofs has been entirely positive!  The best  low 
antenna I ever used was a folded dipole for 40M strung in inverted Vee  fashion 
over the roof of a house trailer.  The peak of the Vee was no more  than 8 feet 
above the roof and the ends were no more than a foot above the  roof.  This 
proved to be the best 40M antenna I've ever had.  I could  work Europe from 
Alabama barefoot two hours before sunset.
 
This worked so well that I used the same antenna from Okinawa Japan  
suspended in inverted vee fashion over a steel reinforced concrete roof.   Again, it 
worked great.  In the 1986 CQWW, I worked several stateside  stations on 40M 
running QRP.
 
I also had wire antennas above corrugated steel roofs at a Air Force work  
site and never experienced any of the noise problems that have been noted by  
others, but then I was using horizontal wire antennas.  The question I  would 
ask is why even use a roof mounted vertical, when a multiband inverted vee  feed 
with ladder line through a tuner will outperform it in spades with  only a 
modest (10') center support?
 
My recommendation, try it!  If it works keep it up, if not take it  down!
 
73,  Paul