I have been following this discussion with a great deal of interest. I
have a small lot near the top of a river valley, and the front yard is
heavily wooded. This wasn't much of a problem when I just worked VHF,
because following the advice of K0MQS, I put up a Rohn 25 tower with 6
and 2 meter beams on top. I had a great time the last sunspot cycle on
6 and enjoyed 2 meters when I could keep the feedline operational.
HF, however is a lot more problematic. I don't have enough room for any
sort of decent wire antenna. And, my tower cannot be guyed and is too
close to the lot line to get away with even a small tribander.
Fortunately, one of my old high school buddies donated a Hy-Gain trap
vertical antenna to me while I was a starving graduate student. So, I
am in a similar situation to a European, and also am stuck with a less
than optimal antenna. I put the vertical up in my back yard, and it is
obscured for about 200 degrees by my house, the hill, and my neighbors'
houses. I eventually bought a DX engineering radial plate, and put down
about 1500 feet of short radial wires, either 18 feet long or 24 feet
long. The feedline is about a hundred feet of RG-213, mostly buried. I
have lots of electrical noise thanks to the sardine like house spacing
in my subdivision and the power lines running through an easement at the
east side of my back yard.
What is amazing to me is how well this thing works out. I have worked
DX with my Argonaut II, the Argonaut 515, and the Argonaut VI. My main
rig alternates between a Corsair II and an Omni VII. I managed to work
many of the W1AW/* stations with the 10 watts of the Argonaut VI, even
on SSB with the Ten Tec RF speech clipper. The only territorial stations
I missed were the ones in the Mariana Islands, but Hawaii on 75 meter
SSB required the Corsair II and the speech clipper. The Mariana Islands
were right in my noise level, and there was my house and the hill in the
way. I am still wondering how I worked T32C with the Corsair II. I
cannot see any sort of an unobstructed path in that direction. They came
back to me once when I was using my Argonaut II on CW. But, that was
not a valid contact. I hope to move up to my acreage in north central
Wisconsin, where I can put up any antenna I might like, and can even put
up HF beams! But, now I am staying here for family reasons, and making
the best of it. So, with some ingenuity, one can have lots of fun with
less than optimal antennas like the lowly trap vertical, even at QRP
power levels.
As my Viking ancestor Hagar the Horrible once said, "Bad breath is
better than no breath at all." The same thing goes for antennas.
73,
Steve WA9JML
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