[GCARC] Simple 10m vertical wire antenna for upcoming club 10m net

[Christopher Wawak]

Hey Tony & Club

Thank you so much for the suggestions! Lots of projects to try. After
digging through the junque box, I decided to go the quick and dirty dipole
route. It was a pain the ass soldering the thicker stranded wire (what I
had laying around) to the PL239 "ground", so maybe I'll have to get some
SO239s. A quick FT8 test shows me that it's getting out, and maybe better
than my long wire! I can't wait to see if y'all pick me up on the net
tonight.

It looks like about a 1.8:1 match! I threw it up over a tree in my front
yard to test for tonight. I still had my christmas light clips up, so it
was straightforward to have the coax come at a right angle to the dipole,
using those plastic clips to the gutter.

SWR chart for the curious https://imgur.com/a/AAnTa17

Do I have to trim both ends of the dipole if I want to see the dip around
32 MHz move down to 10m, or can I get away with only trimming one end?

73,

Chris


On Mon, Nov 2, 2020 at 9:41 AM Tony Starr <tstarr1450 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Chris,
>
> First of all, welcome to the club. The simplest antenna is almost always a
> dipole, and you can install a dipole vertically if you want to use it as a
> vertical antenna.  You need an SO-239 jack, some wire, and a couple of
> insulators for the ends.  Make the wires each about 8 feet 4 inches, long,
> and solder one of them to the center pin on the SO-239 jack, and the other
> one to the ground side of the SO-239.  Tie some lightweight dacron rope to
> the ends, and attach a piece of RG-58 or RG-8x coax to the SO-239.  You
> want to pull one end up, maybe into a tree, high enough to get the other
> end at least 6 or 8 feet above the ground.  Higher is better.  Then you can
> tie off the other end to a stake, fence post, or other stationary object.
>
> The main thing with a dipole is that the coax should come off the antenna
> as close to a right angle as possible to avoid getting common mode currents
> flowing on the outside of the coax shield.  For this, you may have to pull
> the coax away from your antenna and drape it over a roof overhang or rain
> gutter, or possibly pull it up over the branch of another tree.  It does
> not have to be exactly at 90 degrees, but you don't want it hanging down
> next to the radiating wire either.  Just do the best you can. This will
> make a good temporary vertical that you can use to get on the 10m net.
> Later you can shop for a better antenna, or even build one if you like.
> There are many possible choices.
>
> Good luck and I am looking forward to hearing from you on 28.465!
>
> Tony K3TS
>
> On Mon, Nov 2, 2020 at 8:21 AM Christopher Wawak <chris at wawak.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi - I’d love to participate in the club local 10m net. I’m having some
>> trouble finding plans for a  “simple” 10m vertical that I can build using
>> the high quality junque I have around the house.
>>
>> Is it as simple as hanging an 8ish foot wire down out of a tree then match
>> it with a unun? Should I try something else? What’s worked for you?
>> Remember this is temporary until I find a more reliable multiband
>> vertical.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> 73
>> Chris
>> --
>> -- Chris
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> GCARC mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/gcarc
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:GCARC at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>

-- 
-- Chris