40/80 Meter Vertical

Rich Dailey, KA8OKH ka8okh@som-uky.campus.mci.net
Fri, 10 Jan 1997 17:17:57 -0500


At 08:53  1/9/97 CST, you wrote:
>Am planning on putting up a vertical for 40 and 80 meters and wondered
>if anyone could offer some advice on which of the following would be
>the preferred setup.
>Butternut HF2V or a home brew 32 ft vertical with a trap. Above the
>trap I can add about 6 more ft vertical but then would have to go
>horizontal (ala inverted L) for the remainder of the antenna.  Either
>antenna would be ground mounted.  Also, if one of these ideas is less
>prone to cause RFI/TVI, that would be an important consideration since
>I live in the burbs and don't need and more WAA awards.

Hi Wayne.  I use a homebrew vertical - 33 ft. - with switchable base
loading (yuck) for 80m.  It is constructed with aluminum conduit...
1.25 inch, to 1", to 3/4", to finally a 1/2" whip for the last 4 ft. at the
top.  Each section is inserted into the one below it at least 2 ft. for
structural piece-of-mind.  The whole thing is self support on a
treated 4x4 post.  Started out with 4 ground radials, now have 40
or so (I think).  Works very well for dx on 40m, and it does radiate
rf on 80 while the loading coil keeps the rig happy.
I'm also in the suburbs.  I've not received any complaints about rfi (yet).
I'm on a hill overlooking the rest of the neighborhood, and get a lot
of wind.  So far the antenna has withstood everything mo-nature has
thrown at it.  And it is not an eyesore.

Top loading would be much more efficient (ala MFJ, Gap, and the rest),
but I like doing it myself, and I figure it only cost me $100 more -hi.

73... rich

----------------------------------------
Rich Dailey - KA8OKH <ka8okh@som-uky.campus.mci.net>
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