"There are lots of tall trees, I would say in the neighborhood of 60'. That
would be plenty to string up an inverted L. The other option would be to raise
my aluminum tent pole mast as high as I can get it (could go up 70-75'). As
someone pointed out before, ground radials are going to be the only option
since 1/8w (to get away from ground coupling) is 60 some feet on 160 - thats
as
high as the trees. How many radials should I put out? I know the more the
better, but there has to be a point where performence vs. number of radials is
decent enough to not go further."
I would suggest a Tee versus an L and put up a dipole. As to radials, my
experience has been that more radials are better, particularly if they are
short (and mine are!) There has been reams published on the topic. Check recent
back issues of NCJ for some in depth studies. In my case I have between 30 to
60 radials from 25' ranging out to about 80'. Get the vertical part into the
clear (far away from trees) as possible.
"The next question is how many should I lay out? If the beamwidth is 10deg
(I
think thats what they are, around there) then, to get all directions I would
need 36. When you factor in the cost of the wire, relays for switching, ground
rods, and resistors.. hmm, thats a LOT of $$. Are there any directions I
should
really concentrate on? Europe, Africa, South America, Australia, Asia? Im sure
I can eliminate the majority of that 36 by focusing on a few good locations,
rather than trying to accomodate everything."
If you're looking at this from a contesting perspective Steve, you really only
need to focus on a few directions, Europe, the Pacific, Japan and South
America. You could do this with as few as two bi-directional antennas. Shorter
may be better for beverages for a wider signal capture. Sure a lot easier to
install, tune and keep operational fewer antennas, cheaper as well ;o) "Time is
fleeting, madness takes it's toll..." Peak contest season is upon us!
Cheers,
Julius
n2wn
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