Topband: Vee Beams

[GEORGE WALLNER]

  "Jorge Diez - CX6VM" wrote:
> something with experience in Vee Beams?
> 
Jorge,

I had a Vee beam in Arizona for many years. It is a great 
antenna. Mine was 120 meters long (each leg) and 20 meters 
up on a 20 degree mountain slope, about 100 meters above 
the valley. It worked well on 80 to 10 meters. On 160m I 
tied the two ladder-line wires together and made it work 
as a vertical with a very large top loading wire. It was a 
good 160m antenna, but not as a Vee Beam.

To make a Vee beam work well on 160, it needs to be not 
only two wave-lenths long -- i.e. 320 meter long arms -- 
 but also be at least 40 meters up. That is a very large 
antenna! It also must be fed via a ladder line and a 
balanced tuner. If you can do all that, you will have a 
great antenna. Oh, and I almost forgot: if you want to 
cover more than two directions, you need to have at least 
5 wires; or what is called a "star beam".

GL,

George
AA7JV