Hi all,
Sorry, not a question about Plastic Owls....
I'm expecting the tree service company to be by in a week or two and
one of the things they agreed to do was mount my 160 Inverted L for
me. They won't let me up in the bucket with them, thus they'll be
doing the actual install. So I'm wondering about the actual mechanics
of making this antenna. The support end will probably be an eye-bolt
screwed into the top of an oak tree, with a marine pulley attached by
an openable-link or karabiner type deal. This will be for the end
support rope, and I'll have a weight on the end for tension.
What I'm not so sure about is how the "bend" in the inverted L wire
should be accomplished. I'd thought a marine pulley was the answer
for that end, too, but I've been told absolutely not by several
folks. This needs to be something the tree service company workers
can install (with me supervising, of course). I can't pre-make this
portion since I don't know the height of the tree or where the safest
place will be in the tree to actually mount the "bend."
Since I'm not a climber by any stretch of the imagination, I need
this antenna to be as securely erected as possible, and should the
wire break in a windstorm/ice-storm, etc, I'd like to have some
arrangement to be able to put it back up with fairly little fuss.
Since it will be held up by trees on each end (as opposed to a fixed
height tower), I need to account for sway of the trees (worst-case
scenario, one's going one way one the other - not likely, but I
suppose in high winds anything's possible).
On a related note, any idea of a good place to source the
air-variable cap (~1000pf) that I'll need to mount in the box at the
base of this L? And for that matter, will an air-variable be able to
hold up under legal limit or am I now in the realm of vacuum-variable only?
Finally, what gauge and type of wire should be considered for the
radials, or does it matter? Solid? Stranded? 14? bigger/smaller?
As always, thanks to all for your assistance.
Cheers,
Peter,
W2IRT
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