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

[Greg Ciraula]

Tony,
I’m not able to attend the CW training tonight. I should be available Thursday.  
Greg W5DO



On Monday, November 2, 2020, 5:10 PM, Tony Starr <tstarr1450 at gmail.com> wrote:

Good job, Chris!  Looking at your curve, your dipole is resonant somewhere
between 25 and 26 MHz.  You can trim one end and see if it moves up.  Don't
take off too much to start, we are talking about inches, not feet.  There
is no problem just adjusting the end that is nearest the ground and easy to
reach.  You may not get a perfect 1:1, because it will be slightly
imbalanced, but if you get it down to 1.5 I would call it good enough.

Tony K3TS

On Mon, Nov 2, 2020 at 4:54 PM Christopher Wawak <chris at wawak.org> wrote:

> 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
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>>
>
> --
> -- Chris
>
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