[Lowfer] #18 wire

Sat Dec 3 21:01:42 EST 2011

Hi Rick,

Yah, a bit of a shift in loyalty from TX loops to a vertical (although not quite a traditional form of a vertical). The open area just cleared out by loggers crys out for a vertical and should give a good A/B comparison of the performance of these two antennas. They left a huge birch tree in the center of this area and it is about 120ft from the closest tree on my property. The plan is to run one rope support end of the "Y" over the top of this tree and run the other two rope supports to the tops of two trees on my land forming a 120 deg angle  between each rope. The Y itself will be composed of #12 stranded house wire. A counterpoise with a geometrically matching "Y" will be 50ft below this. I will be filling in the "Ys" with smaller gauge wire in order to increase the capacity between them as much as possible consistent with low cost and low weight. The apex of the "Ys" of course will be connected to the vertical element and the loading coil will be hanging in the approx center of this. The whole antenna will be floating relative to ground because of the very poor ground conductivity up here. This pretty much described my first vertical on site (5 years ago) except it was an "X" antenna instead of a "Y" and was located in the center of my 200ft wide lot. The performance of this antenna was quite good (Rac in the order of 10 ohms) but I had to remove it soon after its installation to make room for my house. So far I have installed the ropes over the tops of two trees and should be able to complete the third tomorrow. (BTW I'm still doing pretty good with the compound bow - now batting 1000 :)  Luckily the weather has been good for this project.

About your loop: What you did shouldn't have raised the Rac. Must be something very subtle. Are the two lower legs touching anything other than insulators? That's the most sensitive area. Recheck the Xmter on the bench and also check the resonating caps if nothing else looks out of place.

Bill

> From: smokinggun at verizon.net
> To: lowfer at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2011 04:38:17 +0000
> Subject: Re: [Lowfer] #18 wire
> 
> Wow Bill; I want to see what that looks like and how it performs ! Its a 
> horizontal "Y" ? I guess your feeding it where the 3 legs of the "Y" meet? 
> Do tell!
> 
>  BTW : My loop is doing ok.I trimmed some trees and moved the feed point 
> from the corner to the center of the loop( shouldnt change performance) 
> .That night I was copied by Andy and Doug down in TN ; almost 500 miles! Not 
> bad for a new guy ! For some reason though by trimming the trees away and 
> raising the lower leg from 4 ft up to 8 ft  and moving the feedpoint ; my 
> Rac went up ?I was expecting the opposite but what do I know.
>  Keep us informed on your "Y " experiment .Im real curious.
> 
>    73
>        Rick  KA2PBO
>         "PBO"  187.2Khz  "or so"     qrss60
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bill Ashlock" <ashlockw at hotmail.com>
> To: <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2011 4:02 AM
> Subject: Re: [Lowfer] #18 wire
> 
> 
> >
> > Thanks Warren. I'll have to stop in on my next trip south and/or give them 
> > a call. This is for the antenna design that uses a tall tree 120ft off to 
> > the side of my land. This was originally planned to be an "H" antenna 
> > (rotated 90deg) but I found the capacity between top and bottom sections 
> > to be only about 100pf and not much more with caged conductors. A "Y" 
> > design (looking down from the top) on the other hand has a capacity of 
> > almost 400pf if the "Y" is filled-in with a spider web of smaller ga wire. 
> > I can use two trees on my land to form the "Y". (This is a Lowfer antenna, 
> > BTW, fitting inside a 50' x 50' cylinder)
> >
> > Bill
> >
> >> From: k2ors at verizon.net
> >> To: lowfer at mailman.qth.net
> >> Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2011 22:30:33 -0500
> >> Subject: Re: [Lowfer] #18 wire
> >>
> >> Bill,
> >>    Electronic Surplus Sales in Candia, NH has wire on spools at scrap
> >> prices. Selection varies from day to day, so it might pay to check with 
> >> them
> >> first.
> >>
> >> 73 Warren
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message ----- 
> >> From: "Bill Ashlock" <ashlockw at hotmail.com>
> >> To: <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
> >> Sent: Friday, December 02, 2011 10:06 PM
> >> Subject: [Lowfer] #18 wire
> >>
> >>
> >> >
> >> > Does anyone know of a cheep source for #18 bare stranded wire? Need 
> >> > about
> >> > 500ft for a new Lowfer antenna design.
> >> >
> >> > Used to buy so-called 'chandelier wire' at $12 for a 500ft spool at 
> >> > Home
> >> > Depot but now I'm seeing astronomical prices.
> >> >
> >> > Bill
> >> >
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