I used a Carolina beam (similar to the Carolina windom, but with the ends
turned down bobtail-curtain style) for a while and was very impressed with
it, but to the original question... Can you use a non-conductive standoff to
hold the antenna a few feet away from the tower, slide the antenna through
the standoff until the center insulator is maybe 10' or so away from the
tower and then bring the coax back to the tower at around 10' above
mid-height, and secure it from there on down? You'd have less than half the
coax floating loose (and it would be away from the tower) and you could
still drop the thing down far enough that you could get at the feed point.
Of course you'd still have to climb a bit over half way up in order to
replace the coax, but it might last quite a few years that way. If you have
a lot of wind you would want the best possible support at the feed point.
Someone mentioned bringing the coax back up over and securing to the
balun/center insulator so it is not supported by its attach point. When I
was building crossed double bazookas I used to build the feed point inside a
PVC Tee with plugs on all the outlets (drilled for the coax of course) and
filled with silicon sealant. I never had one fail and I'm still using one
that's been up over ten years now. I must admit, however, we don't get high
winds here. At the tower you might run the coax through a hunk of
appropriate diameter rubber hose to act as a strain relief. Just some
thoughts.
73 - JC, khps@amsat.org
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Wes Attaway (N5WA)
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 5:50 PM
To: k2qmf@juno.com; finger@goeaston.net
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Rigging Dipoles and Growing Old
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com]On Behalf Of
k2qmf@juno.com
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 6:27 PM
To: finger@goeaston.net
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Rigging Dipoles and Growing Old
Note: all previous responses have been "cut".
I have long been a fan of the OWL-fed dipole with balun and
tuner. However, when I moved to a new house (on a small lot but
with quite a few nice tall Pines) this past winter I wanted to
get something up quick. Most of my "stuff" was in boxes, so I
swallowed my pride and ordered an 80-meter Carolina Windom. I
threw it up about 70' (pulleys and lines had been installed by
tree climbers during construction) and I fired up the new Orion
and have been having a blast.
It is performing far better than I expected. I've worked 255
countries in all directions using casual CW in my spare time
(mostly just in the evenings) in the last 6 months. It works
great on all bands. The Orion tuner (and the old Alpha 76
Pi-Net) tune it just fine on all bands. I know it probably has
an inefficient balun at the feedpoint, and the RG8X is not the
lowest loss stuff in the world, and I have 175' of Bury-Flex just
to get to the ground-level feedpoint, but the darn thing really
works.
I am going to put up an OWL-fed dipole to do some comparative
testing, but for now I am pretty happy.
My advice: Forget the OWL, forget the RG8 feed, get (or build) a
Carolina Windom. It may not actually work better than a dipole
but the feed impedance seems to behave a lot better. Being able
to eliminate the external tuner is a big relief as far as I am
concerned.
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any
questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
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