[SECC] SS Club Competition - Going for the Gavel

[K9AY]

Jeff,

Considering practical construction as well as radiation performance...

2-element wire beams are hard to beat.  They are very forgiving on 
construction -- you'll get an honest 3 dB gain even if they're mis-tuned! 
They are much easier to put up than 3 elements -- less than half the boom 
length and only two elements to line up.  Point one about 020 deg. and the 
other at 300 deg. Build the 300 deg. one first, since it will give you the 
most benefit. A dipole broadside NNE/SSW will cover W8 through W1 if you run 
out of time to build two beams.

I think you'll be disapppointed with half-squares or bobtails. I've never 
seen them perform very well.  We used a 40M bobtail for FD in Colorado for 
several years, but one year put up a wire beam, too -- beat the bobtail 95% 
of the time.

The phased verticals are not a bad choice. In 1986-87, I had two elevated 
40M ground planes (feedpoints up 30 ft.) spaced just under 1/2 wave. They 
worked very well, just one small step below the locals with the typical 
shorty forty at 75 or 80 ft.

Be sure to have a decent antenna for 80, too -- 40 will probably go long 
early.

Good luck -- I'll be operating portable from the new QTH construction site 
with a few wires in the trees.

Go SMC! (Unlimited)
Go SECC! (Medium)

73, Gary
K9AY
____________

>
>  I will be a "serious"  FT LP for CW. I have the SO2R with the Dx Doubler 
> all wired and ready to go.
> I have been testing that out the last few weekends...  If I can get the RF 
> out of my DX Doubler when I use it on SSB I might do SS Phone FT as 
> well...
>
> Station #1 will be IC746PRO with 20 meter dipole, 40 meter vertical
> Station #2 will be TS850S with 88 foot zepp @ 45ft
>
> The 40 meter vertical might change this weekend as I get ready for CQWW 
> SSB.
> I am thinking of the one following 40 meter antennas depending on how much 
> room I find out I have :
>
> 1) 2 Half squares -  one pointed NE/SW , the other NW/SE
>
> 2) 3 el wire beam to NE - inverted Vees
>
> 3) 2 el quad - switchable NE/SW
>
> 4) Phased verticals - 1/2 wl spacing - switchable broadside/endfire
>
> 5) Bobtail Curtain to NE/SW, Half square NW/SE
>
>
> 73, Jeff