[CQ-Contest] awesome upgrades to the 8 band vertical!!

[Georgek5kg at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/30/2004 10:46:53 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
w9wi at earthlink.net writes:
Cut them for CW, but cut the support ropes at the end for phone.  When
operating phone, wrap the extra wire around the antenna, going back
towards the center insulator.  When operating CW, let the extra wire
droop down towards the ground.  
This is a good suggestion, especially for 80 and 160 inverted vees, where you 
can reach the ends from the ground, or at least lower the ends to where you 
can reach them.

Here is another trick.  Cut your inverted vee for SSB.  Install an SO-239 
coax connector into the distant end of each leg of the inverted vee.  (Cut the 
leg one foot from its distant end, and connect the SO-239's center pin to one 
wire, and its ground to the other wire).  When operating on SSB, connect shorted 
PL-259's each SO-239.  For CW, attach a length of coax, shorted at its 
distant end, into the SO-239.  This effectively adds length to the inverted vee, 
hereby making it usable on CW.  

For 80m, here is what I would do:  Make the inverted vee 119' long for 
approximately 3900 kHz, or 59.5' on each leg.  Install SO-239's as described above.  
For SSB, attach shorted PL-259's to each SO-239.  For CW (3600 kHz), add 6' 
sections of shorted coax to each SO-239 connector that you have installed at 
the distant end of each leg.  Will work like a charm!

73, Geo...

George Wagner, K5KG
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
941-400-1960 cell