Topband: Inv L in Tree

[Mike Furrey]

Hi Ed,
Yes, many times. When in Houston, TX on a 60' x90' lot I had one that was in between two 70'+ pine trees (about 5' from each tree at the feed point). I had one elevated radial up 15' that was shaped like an L to fit on the property. 150+ countries with 600 watts. The big issue was receive. On leg of my K9AY loop was 6' from the elevated radial. I had to beef up the termination resistors in the loop and detune the inverted L on receive. Currently in Oak Ridge, TN I have an 1/8 wavelength vertical in the middle of an 85' oak tree and an 1/8 wavelength elevated radial. This is stuffed on a 1/5 acre lot. actually I am making this antenna dual band ... 80/160 ... and I am very pleased with the results so far. With 100 watts I have worked Europe and into the pacific on 160. I built this antenna just a few month ago. still tinkering with it to get it farther away from the trunk (about 10' now). 

Both of the above antennas were isolated from ground and fed through a ferrite choke balun. There were just enough losses that the feed point impedance was 50 ohms.

The inverted L that gave me the best results was suspended between two large oak trees and I had four 81' elevated radials up about 20'. The radials were tuned and the impedance was about 25 ohms. A hair pin match fixed that. I did have access to an acre of land to put that one up. This is straight out of the ON4UN book.

There are models and debates (all I have studied and read) as to how to manage wires in trees and I will suggest to try it. An antenna analyzer will be your best friend. Enjoy!

73, Mike WA5POK 

    On Sunday, September 23, 2018 1:40 AM, Edward via Topband <topband at contesting.com> wrote:
 

 Has anybody snaked a wire up a tall tree trunk to make an Inv L? 

Any interaction?  Success??  Has to be stealthy because the tree os my neighbor's :-)

Thanks,
Ed NI6S
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