Topband: Using wires from large trees as verticals?

[Jim Brown]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:56:49 -0800, Andreas Hofmann wrote:

>Is it possible to make a wire hanging from a tree work just like 
>the titanex vertical?

I also have many tall trees (redwoods, Douglas Fir), and some 
smaller ones (birch, madrone, pin oak. My 160 vertical is 70 ft tall 
and top-loaded, suspended between two tall trees, at least 20 ft 
from any of tree trunks. It works very well on 160 and 80. It has 40 
radials, 70 ft long. I've had lousy luck with a vertical on 40M. 
Maybe it's the trees, maybe it's the terrain (I'm in mountains). 

I've seen anecdotal comments that a vertical radiator very close to 
a tree trunk will see loss from the tree. I've seen no SCIENCE on 
this, and A/B comparisons would be required to be meaningful. 

Bottom line -- I suggest you run a traveler between two trees and 
drop your vertical from it. Make part of the traveler conductive if 
the vertical is much less than a quarter wave. 

73,

Jim K9YC