[Elecraft] Need advice on Small Tower

[Terry Brown]

Hello all,

 

I am the owner if a K2, KX3, PX3, and KXPA100.  I have been a ham since
1982, and love my Elecraft gear.  I have a question for the group.  I am
moving from my current QTH in Corvallis, OR  after 30 years.  Currently I
have a Rohn 25 based tower that is about 35 feet above my flat roof.  On the
tower is a tri-band Cushcraft ATB-34 and 2m/440 comet antennas.  The beam
and tower  date from the time I became a ham.

 

I am building a new home in an established neighborhood in West Salem,
Oregon.  The CCRs have expired, so I am not restricted from a tower setup.
My new QTH is high in the west hills of Salem.   The view to the east is
amazing as the ground slopes away.  To the west, the terrain has a slight
rise.  I am 68 yrs. old.   I don't want to have to climb a tower again.  My
home will be two stories with the garage level under it.  The peak of my
roof will be about 34 ft. above grade.  My new tower location will be about
32 feet from grade to the peak of the roof.  The roofline will run N-S with
the tower on the west side of the house.  

 

I have decided to purchase a new smaller lightweight crankup tower and a
smaller  tribander such as the Mosley TA-33 JR-N or NW.  I have seen the US
Towers MA-40,  a 20-41ft. crankup as one type.  It comes with a tilt over
base add-on which would allow me to service the antenna from the ground.
This particular two section tower can crank down to 20 ft., thus not being
visible from the street east of the house.  It's max height is 41 ft. which
would put the antenna only 9-10 ft. above the roofline when transmitting to
the East.  I want to put a winch on the tower so I don't have to physically
crank it up by hand as I get older.  With this background I have two
questions:

 

1.    Will the yagi attached to the tower with only 9-10 ft. height above
the roofline (41 ft. tower)  be an effective radiator and receive antenna on
20-15-10 meter bands to the East?  Being on the West Coast, this will be the
direction of most of my mainland US contacts.   To the N-W-S, the antenna
will be 41 ft. above the ground, so no problem. 

 

2.    I am not committed to any particular crankup tower.  The US Tower is
just the one I have seen on the internet.  I would be interested in any
lighterweight fold over crank up tower up to 50 ft.   I think a tubular
constructed type tower would be my preference due to weight of installation.
A triangular designed crankup may be ok, too.

 

I know I can have a larger tower and antenna, but I want my setup to be
neighbor friendly.  I am not a contester, and will never operate over 100
watts.  It is nice to be able to work a station if I can hear it.  I also
want the advantage of a horizontally polarized antenna with gain.  I have
been spoiled with that setup over the years.

 

Just as an aside, my other antenna is a horizontal loop about 250 ft. in
length that I use for all the other bands.  It is up about 30 ft. suspended
from the trees in my current QTH.  I feed it with 450 ohm ladder into a 4:1
balun to coax.  At my new QTH, we will plant two contained planters with 20
or 30 ft. bamboo on the SW and NW corners of my property where I can put a
vertical pipe for two supports, then use the peak of my roof on the N and S
side at 34 Ft. for my NE and SE contact points for my other two corners for
my horizontal loop.  I will feed it with the same 450 ohm ladder from the NE
corner.   I really like my horizontal loop because it is so quiet being
horizontally polarized.  My current one works great so I want the same thing
for my new QTH.  

 

I look forward to getting some great input from this group.  I have been
amazed at the level of quality information I have seen on this group.

 

Thanks in advance to you all.

 

73's,

 

Terry Brown, N7TB