You'll find a apir or so of Inverted L antennas with a good ground system
pretty hard to beat as a start. The ground you put in, if you plan ahead
a bit, will last for future antennas. Get as much vertical section as
you can on the L's.
The flag antennas, properly made, will also be a great, inexpensive start,
as would a a K9AY, IF you build a good ground under it.
Hard to get good grounds in the mountains!! Hope to hear you on 160!
73
Ralph Matheny
K8RYU
207 Gibbons Place
Marietta Ohio 45750
On Wed, 10 May 2006, Duncan Lindsay -MSC Valencia- wrote:
>
> From: "Duncan Lindsay -MSC Valencia-" <duncan@mscvalencia.com>
> To: <topband@contesting.com>
> Subject: Topband antenna advice
> Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 11:23:28 +0200
>
>
> Dear All
>
> First of let me state that in spite of being licensed for 18 years, I
> can count the contacts I have made on top band on the fingers of one
> hand. This is a result of a) living in an urban area and b) always
> being shoved onto the daytime shift at multi-op contests.
>
> It so happens that newly-HF-licensed EC5BHB has a weekend shack out
> in the mountains near Valencia and we are putting together a plan for
> a nice contest station there. The plan for the moment consists of a
> multi-mono tribander for 10/15/20, and vee beams for 40 which will
> also work on 20 and 15. For 80, I'm mulling over a pair of phased verticals.
>
> But the real killer for me is top band. Since I have no experience, I
> am a bit short on ideas and that's where I'd appreciate any wisdom
> from you died-in-the-wool topbanders.
>
> What we have available is a mountain-top shack (it is VERY windy
> there), loads of space, and a tight budget. The possibilities I've
> looked at so far are:
>
> A simple dipole (will need to be very high, pretty difficult for us)
>
> A vertical of some sort. Or two, phased. (this looks to be pretty expensive)
>
> Quarter wave slopers to each main direction (could be?)
>
> A directional half-square (looks good but I have no idea how it works)
>
> It would seem I may also be well advised to get some kind of receiving
> antenna.
>
> Like I say, I'd appreciate any help you could give me. If this has
> already been covered at some stage in the archives, then please forgive me.
>
> 73 de Duncan EA5ON
>
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