Jerry,
You don't need the transformer and termination parts for the Vee beams.
You don't need terminating resistors. The Vee beam just becomes
bi-directional without the resistor. You can run window line, 450 ohm,
to the narrow feed point end from a tuner. Make your own wire
elements. Add a tuner and you are set.
What we did some years ago for all band vees is run 10 wave vee legs on
10m. 330 feet each leg. That was still a good gain on low bands.
We had 3 bi directional, (unterminated) horizontal vees. You don't want
them more than about 10 - 20 feet high, or they will skip out too far.
30 feet is too high for a horizontal long vee. We had 3 Tee tuners,
with baluns, and a switch box. You rotated your FD array by switching
to peak the received CQ FD signal. Then you gave the station a call.
We used 3 identical tuners, so the settings were about the same no
matter which antenna you used on a given band. The year we raised the
antennas to a 30 foot feed point off a tower on a hill, they skipped
over the East and West Coasts. We were working HI when in earlier FDs
we worked AZ at the same time. Now, we use 1.25 wave at 80 m square
horizontal loops for FD.
We build our wire antennas with 14 gauge conduit wire, insulated, 'cause
its cheaper. 500 foot roll makes one and a half Vees of 10 wave 10m
legs (330 feet). But, you can cut back to 4 wave legs on 10m. That is
still a half wave leg on 80m.
I have been playing with a homemade Vee that only has 44 foot legs,
which still should be some gain on 20m, but have not had enough
operating hours with sunspots to evaluate it. It is sloping like the TT
ones. feed point high, and fed with 300 ohm twin lead, cause I had a
lot. Goes to a B&W 300 watt tuner which loads it fine. I run only 100
watts SSB. The apex was supposed to be at 30 feet, but its more like 20
feet. Ends come down to tie off on 5 foot points on a wood fence.
On our original FD vee beams, we used a 40 degree angle between the feed
point wires. I have used 20 ga and 16 ga wires for vees and 14 ga is
better from strength, but sags. You may want to try 16 gauge, but if
you go 330 foot legs, the tension can break the wire if you get a wind.
Been there, done that. Likely you will have to pre stretch any Vee wire
as they get to be a high tension installation. Otherwise, you put them
up one day, and they are dragging the ground overnite.
Even if you slope the Vees like Ten Tec does, that might just allow you
to work close in stations on low bands NVIS style, as well as skip
stations in the direction of the slope. Most of my vees were
horizontal, I have several FDs with them. My present sloping one is my
first sloper. I have to slope it toward a hill to South, so it has not
had a good location at home. The ideal is to be on a hill, with vee
sloping down if at all.
-Stuart Rohre
K5KVH
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