[Boatanchors] Hard to beat them wire antennas etc, a lengthy post

[Philip]

Hi All,

I hope this isn't too OT.  It was also posted to the antenna reflector, but 
I'd posted here awhile back and asked for some antenna information and some 
folks here were very kind in giving me advice (and one gentleman here sent 
me some nice Military Cobraheads that I cleaned up and used).

Besides, these antennas ARE going to be used with my BOATANCHORS ALSO 9^)


A couple of weeks ago I posted an inquiry about "band pairs" for fan dipole
antennas as I was considering installing some new ones here.

The QTH is a mobile home with NO real estate to speak of for antennas.
Basically everything had to be installed over the approximately 1200 sq feet
of sheet-metal roof and metal awning.

For six years (since we moved in here) I had been using a roof mounted
Hustler 6BTV for 75-10M and a 60 foot long Alpha Delta DX-B sloper for 160,
75, 30 & 40Meters.

Probably because of being fairly low over the metal roof, the Alpha Delta
resonated BELOW all bands (and A/D suggests using a tuner, NOT cutting it).
At this QTH it never was a great performer for hamming, though it worked OK 
on the lower
SWL bands AND even longwave with a combination matcher/pre-amp.

The Hustler seemed to work fairly well on 15/10M, so-so on 20M, "tolerable"
on 40M and terrible on 75, primarily because you had to tweak the tuner
every few KC.  75 and 40M always seemed noisy.  It wasn't a quiet antenna.

Then about a year ago I installed a half sided G5RV Inverted Vee (40M and
up) along with a Inverted Vee for 15M.  BOTH antennas seemed to perform very
well on their intended bands, but the G5RV again required tweaking the tuner
every few KC, especially on 40M.

I WANTED TO GET AWAY FROM HAVING TO USE A TUNER IN MY 'NORMAL' OPS.

So this fall/early winter the "antenna farm" went through a COMPLETE
revamping, with all new antennas, coax cable, fittings etc.

1. First to go up in November was a new  Butternut HF-2V vertical for
75/40M, in the location where the Hustler once stood.  This was grounded
directly to the sheet-metal roof as well as many radials laid across the
sheet-metal roof/awnings to make sure that it was well coupled to the
various sheets of metal.  Testing this antenna showed that it met my
expectations, had under 2:1 SWR across all of 40M and across about 90KC on
75M.  It was tuned so that 1:1 SWR is at 3900KC and 7200KC.  This puts it
right where about 80% of my operating is done (I don't do as much CW as I
used to). Signal reports with people I routinely work are MUCH better on
both 75 and 40M than I ever got on the Sloper and Hustler antennas.

The Hustler and Alpha Delta Sloper were removed when the HF-2V was 
installed.

2.   Step two in the first part of December was to remove the half sized
G5RV and install two NEW and separate Inverted Vee dipoles for 40M and 20M.
I gave up the idea of the multiband fan dipoles and aimed for better
performance with individual antennas per band.

The 40M Vee was mounted to the top of the pushup pole that had supported the
sloper and G5RV. The antenna is fed with new Military surplus RG-213 and
uses a B&K Military grade "Cobrahead" at the Apex, perhaps 24 feet or so
above the roofline (wish it could have been higher, but not practical here).
8 Inch insulators made from PVC pipe are used at the ends of each leg.  This
Vee is "kind of a sloper" in that the legs slope down and out to the two
edges of the awning (I didn't have room to run them straight down).

To keep the two antennas well spaced apart for minimum interaction, the 20M
Vee antenna was mounted to the push-up pole about 6 feet below the Apex of
the 40M Vee.  It's legs are run in the opposite direction to that of the 40M
antenna to provide "back pull" to the push-up pole.  They are tied off at
two small fruit trees.  It too uses military surplus RG-213, a B&K Military
grade Cobrahead and 8 inch PVC insulators.

One thing that I was afraid of was that the new 40M Vee 'might' have a
strong effect on the tuning of the HF-2V vertical since it's in the near
field of that antenna.  The Vee's Push-up pole is perhaps 35 feet from the
HF-2V and the Vee slopes in the direction of the HF-2V.

HOWEVER, NO change was noted in the tuning or bandwidth of the HF-2V on
either 75 or 40M!

How do I like these "new" antennas?  They are working GREAT.  The 40M nets
that I routinely check into said that the 40M Inverted Vee 'seemed' to be
about 6dB (1 S unit) stronger than the HF-2V, which is probably better for
DX. The inverted Vee is also 1-2 S units "quieter" than the HF-2V on 40M.
But BOTH antennas have their place as I did hear some stations better on the
Vertical.  Perhaps in a null of the Vee or the "angle of the dangle"
(radiation angle).

One last job remains to be done.  I want to replace the present 15M Vee with
a "beefier" one and feed it with RG-213 also.  (Up until these antennas were
installed I always used "mini-8", RG-8x coax).  Perhaps one of these days
I'll be able to get a small amplifier in the 400-500 Watt class and that
will REALLY help.

I'm not sure who said it, but I remember reading 'somewhere' that it's
better to be on the air and having fun with the antennas that you CAN put up
than to cry and moan over the fact that you can't put that "dream" system up
and be a big gun!


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73 de Phil,  KO6BB
DX begins at the noise floor!  Merced, Central California

THE BEACONEER'S LAIR:  http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
QSL GALLERY: http://photobucket.com/albums/y123/KO6BB/
Merced, Central California,    37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh

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