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[Towertalk] New Tower - Need Advice

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Subject: [Towertalk] New Tower - Need Advice
From: tom@k4nr.org (Tom Branch)
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 20:46:37 -0600
Greetings,

After a couple year break in the action I'm finally putting an antenna farm
back together.  I purchased 12 acres so I have lots of room and the nearest
neighbor is 800 feet away!

I have a 80-foot Height tower that will initially be center of the main
antenna.  I plan on safety guying at the 40 and 80 foot levels--the West
Texas winds can get up there!  I'd like to use the upper set of guys as
triangular array of dipoles on 40 meters.  This seems reasonable enough by
breaking up the guy wires leaving a 40 meter dipole in each guy.  Feed each
guy with a 3/8 wavelength coax and use DPST relays to switch it around.
>From West Texas I would think that orienting the array with one guy at 60
degrees, one at 180 degrees and the last at 300 degrees would give
reasonable coverage.  I'm considering using Phillstran on the lower set of
guys and on the ends of the upper guys.

I'm also considering using elevated radials (3) at the 10-foot level for 80
meters. A simple loading coil at the feedpoint would allow for selecting
between 75 and 80 meters.

A couple of questions.

How far should the guy points be from the base of the tower?

Any pros or cons to using Phillystran as described or would it be cheaper to
just use the small guy cable and break it up with insulators?

If insulators, someone suggested using 19 feet as the distance between
insulators--suggestions?

Will the 40 meter array interact when using 80/75 meters?

I want to do this right the first time around, so please feel free to make
any suggestions...


73 de Tom

tom@k4nr.org
http://www.k4nr.org


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