[KCDXC] 40/80m Antenna ideas?

[Reicher, James]

Marty,

If you have some coil wire, it's not hard to roll your own.  I built a
loaded dipole for 160 using a piece of PVC as the core for the coil.  If
you bottom-load the antenna, you'll need fewer turns than if you top or
center-load it.  Here's a link to the web page I used to design mine.
This page tells you the inductance you need, based on the dimensions of
the antenna, the gauge of the coil wire and the diameter of the coil.
http://www.ecosse.org/jack/radio/software/loading.html

Once you have this complete, go to this page to design the actual coil.
http://ecosse.org/jack/radio/software/newcoil3.html

I wound two coils and built the entire dipole in less than two hours.
Total cost was around $45.  Most of that was for the roll of coil wire
that I got from Electronic Supply.  Of course, a vertical is a little
different, but you should get a good antenna out of this.

73 de N8AU, Jim in Raymore, MO


-----Original Message-----
From: kcdxc-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:kcdxc-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Marty Tippin
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 11:07 AM
To: kcdxc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [KCDXC] 40/80m Antenna ideas?

I need an antenna that will get me on 40 and 80m, probably needs to be a
vertical and something that doesn't take up much space. City lot without
much
space and nothing to hang wires from. Had to take my wires down last
year when
we added onto the house, can't really put them back up now.

A Hy-Tower would be great, but I think the neighbors would raise hell
about it
being 53 feet tall. I don't need anything beyond 40 and 80 for this
antenna, so
a general-purpose multi-band vertical is overkill and probably too much
of a
compromise - they all have limited bandwidth on the low bands.

The only thing that really comes to mind is a 40/80 version of that
nifty
CoLatchCo antenna that AE9B and others use on 80 and 160. Is there a
40/80
version of that antenna and what are the specs if so? How many cases of
beer
would it take to get KD0FW to make me a nice top loading coil for it?

Are there any other commercial verticals that meet my requirements?


=====
-Marty NW0L
 martyt at pobox.com
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