[Elecraft] Field Day Antenna Setup

[Brett Howard]

Ok so far I've only had the pleasure of operating on a gain antenna in
the HF bands for 2 days in my lifetime.  I'm in the process of working
out a setup that will allow me to gain at least one day a year... ;)

I'm looking at a mast setup from Blue Sky Masts
(http://www.blueskymast.com)  From the looks of it they will allow me to
get my antenna up to about 10 meters with margin.  

The antenna that I've been given is a Hustler 3-TBA its rated to provide
8dB of gain.  Doesn't specify what band that gain pertains to or if its
dBi dBd or what... But its got 8dB of magical happiness.  And 27 to 28
dB of F/B ratio.  It has a boom length of 14' and a longest element of
24'9".  The wind surface is rated at 5.7sq. ft and it weighs 40
pounds.  

Blue sky has a max head load of 40 lbs at 11 meters on their sturdier
towers.  This is why I figure 10 meters would be a good number.  However
I plan on purchasing the 11 meter tower as it is the first model that
comes with the secondary guying equipment rather than having to purchase
it separately.  

So my question to you gentlemen is what are your thoughts on this
antenna?  How high to I really need to get this thing in order to get
good performance out of it?  I ask this because I heard from the Blue
Sky sales guy that he'd only recommend going to about 8 meters and
double guying.  (I'm still waiting for a response from BlueSky
Engineering on why I'm not allowed to use their mast to 10 meters as
I'll be doing so with margin).  I think the reason may be that their
wind load ratings are tested with 1 sq ft of surface area.

Then finally if I were later to add a better antenna system to this
setup what would you recommend?  Preferably more gain as I'm usually
running with either 7 watts (K1) or up to 100 watts (K3) never more (and
usually less).  I think that less weight would also be beneficial as it
would make things easier to deploy and might possibly lend itself to
greater mast heights (I can always buy more mast sections to add to my
setup at a later date).

Thanks for your thoughts gentlemen.

~Brett (KC7OTG)