[SMCARA] Antenna Setup

[Daniel Metcalf]

Good Morning All,

Just wanted to get some thoughts on a personal antenna installation that
I have been considering. Please let me know what you think.

Earlier this year I purchased a 160 sloper from Jim (KJ4WAS) but have
not installed it yet for a couple reasons. First, I needed to get
everything together to do the install and Secondly, I needed to wait for
the leaves clear off of the tree that seems to be the best candidate for
the installation. Lastly, having two back surgeries in a single year
have limited my ability to get it done.

A couple things have been ringing in my head as possible issues so when
my launcher failed (line broke and I lost the weight on launch) last
night I was not too heart broken. 

Possible Issues:

1) Between my house and the tree in which I would like to do the install
is my vertical antenna and radial field. I have been considering the
effects that could be caused by running the new feed-line either over or
under the existing radial field.

2) The tree in which I would like to do the install is ~60ft tall and
greater than 100ft from the house so I am seeing that I am going to need
~200ft of coax (which I already have) the thing that I have been
considering is if I should leave the feed-line as one piece or put in an
in-line adapter at the base of the tree.

My current thinking is that Issue #1 is going to be the bigger issue. So
much so that I might need to consider a different tree or would be
inclined to move the vertical antenna to another part of the back yard.
Which for anyone who has installed a vertical would know how much of a
pain that would be especially with buried radials, coax and an 8ft
galvanized pipe driven in the ground as the base.

For Issue #2 I am thinking of just leaving the coax as a single piece to
avoid any possibility of water getting into the connectors. The losses
for the coax at 200ft is only ~0.66 db on 40m to ~1.76db at 6m based on
JefaTech's Website and based on needing the full 200ft of LL400 so the
distance is not that big of an issue.

Any thoughts?


Thanks,
Dan Metcalf -- KB3UUN