Topband: Anybody?

[Jim Garland]

I have the 26m (85.3 ft) Spiderbeam fiberglass vertical, with sixty 30m
radials on top of sandy desert soil. It uses four 7m top hat wires, and is
tuned to 1.820 MHz, where the VSWR is 1.47:1.  I feed it with about 300m of
buried hardline.  The assembly instructions are clear and the antenna tuned
to frequency very easily. It's a good perfomer, although the radiatmg wire
only extends up to about 24m .

Structurally, the antenna is relatively light duty. It has four levels of
guy lines (16 guys total), the top two levels being 1 mm Kevlar and very
thin polypropylene fishing line attached to the top hat wires.. The top few
sections of mast resemble fishing poles and are very flexible. The bottom
section is roughly 6 inch OD and with the supplied rubber cap fits tightly
into standard PVC plumbing tubing. I anchored a 1m length of the PVC into
concrete and that made a dandy anchor point for the mast.

The top hat is made of very thin wire with a low breaking strength. Rodents
ate through the Kevlar guys last year and toppled the antenna, which broke
into three pieces. I redid the guys, elevating the anchor points, so don't
expect that problem to recur. Don't be deceived by the YouTube video showing
the pole being raised by two people. When the wire is attached to the pole,
including the top hat wires, erection for me has been a four hour job
involving a minimum of six people; four at each guy anchor and two to hoist
the mast. The slightest wind makes erection very difficult because slight
flexing prevents the nested sections from sliding. Last time I did this I
mounted a 12 foot long 4x4 post in concrete next to the pole with an
inexpensive hand winch to raise the sections. That helped a lot.  I can send
photos to anyone interested.
73,
Jim W8ZR 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Henk
PA5KT
> Sent: Friday, January 01, 2016 09:29 AM
> To: topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: Topband: Anybody?
> 
> Bill,
> 
> This is a standard toploaded vertical. Spiderbeam sells the same with
> fiber mast.
>
(http://www.spiderbeam.com/product_info.php?info=p337_160m%20Wire%20Vertical
%20
> kit%20including%2018m%20fiberglass%20pole.html)
> 
> Like any other vertical the performance of your antenna depends on your
> radial system.
> 
> I do not have experience with these commercial available antennas as I
> have  tree of that height which I use.
> 
> 73 Henk PA5KT
> 
> Op 1/1/2016 om 5:16 PM schreef K4OWR:
> > :::: Does anyone recall that I originally asked about this?
> >
> > http://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dxe-160va-
> 1?seid=dxese1&gclid=Cj0KEQiAno60BRDt89rAh7qt-
> 4wBEiQASes2tUOULTlQpNyMARBk4ZWRxw70jODW_FJCuBJ1Td47YMgaAhgQ8P8
> HAQ
> >
> >
> > I appreciate all the advice, but a lot of people recommended antennas
> > that I have had for years.
> >
> > BILL K4OWR
> >
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