[OKDXA] A Question...

[AC5UP]

Now that the weather is moving toward classic antenna maintenance
conditions (high wind and freezing rain) I'm considering reworking the
backyard windcatcher. A couple of years ago a neighbor's Bradford pear
split in half and took out the south end of the setup.

I currently have two 30' telescoping masts spaced 120' apart and aligned
on a true north-south axis. Previously a 135' off-center fed dipole
(Windom) with drooping ends occupied the spot and worked well for me.
Each mast was topped by 5' of PVC pipe which gave approximately 4' of
separation from the masting and an overall installed height of 32' give
or take a little wire sag. Good cloverleaf pattern on 20 with lobes into
Europe, Asia and Australia.

I could re-do the same setup but am considering a terminated loop
instead. I want all-band coverage (the Windom did everything 'cept 15)
and decent general coverage RX. Visualize a rectangle 100' horizontally
and 20' high, approximately 240' of wire. This would give me 10' of
separation from the masts and 10' of clearance off the ground. In the
middle of the bottom wire an 800 ohm non-inductive terminating resistor
would be installed and a 4:1 dual-core Guanella (current) balun would be
at the feed point, center of the top wire. Classic design would have the
feed on the bottom wire as a practical mechanical consideration but I'm
thinking top wire as that would put the greatest point of RF current up
high where it can radiate more effectively. (?)

Coming off the feed point would be a parallel run of RG-62 (95 ohm
version of RG-59) approximately 50'-60' to the roof overhang of the
house. Essentially this would form a ~200 ohm shielded pair and give me
a semi-sheltered place for another 4:1 dual-core balun. Shields on the
parallel coax run would be tied together at both ends with the bottom
end grounded to an 8' copperclad rod. The shield of the RG-213 going to
the shack would also be grounded at this point. Concept is to transfer
the 800 ohm impedance of the loop to 200 ohms balanced for the first
feed line, then down to 50 ohms unbalanced (with a common ground point)
for the remainder of the feed.

On the plus side I'm expecting relatively low SWR throughout the HF
bands with low-noise RX, negatives would be unity gain relative to a
dipole and likely best propagation to the east and west. Might not be as
good into EU as I was before, might not matter when the bands are
running good as the difference would be less than an s-unit. (?)

Anyone have any thots on the idea?

BTW: No amplifier, 100 watts max and often less. On the previous wire if
I could hear 'em I could work 'em (except during pileups so thick you
could walk on them) and it had very good ears. If the loop doesn't work
as expected I'd have no problem putting the Windom back up as it would
be about a four hour job. ;)