[TowerTalk] Small lot -- need help

[Cathryn Mataga]

OK, here's my situation. I'm on a small lot.  It's like 42ft wide, 
and maybe 120ft long.  It's in Berkeley.  In front of my house is 
a supermarket, there's a warehouse a couple houses away.  Next door 
is are rentals which I have good relations with.  Behind me is a big 
church parking lot.  I have a yard, full of weeds,
which I'd like to put some kind of antenna.  The driveway's a little
narrow, though I've gotten trucks back there in the past.  My family
has owned this property since the 50's.  

I can put up to $5K into this project, but I'd really like the thing to
last awhile.  I'm 37 now, and hope to last another 40 years at least.  
I've lived in this funny building for a long time, and don't want to 
move. 

I've never had a proper HF beam, and am thinking I'd 
like to get something up.  My current Butternut Vertical seems to work
OK on 30/40/80.  And people do hear me on 20.  But, still
I feel like I want to do the proper beam thing.  Part of it is that I
got my extra a few years ago -- and suddenly, like the last contest,
I can actually call these people -- cool.  It's good to be extra.  

Anyway, I'm debating a few plans of action.

1.  Put up a beam, maybe a TH3JR on a mast on top of the roof. I've 
drive by a ham installation that looks like it has a similar kind 
of deal.  I usually run around 600 watts or so -- so this kind 
of makes sense.  I have no idea how to actually get something like 
this up -- but on paper this looks like a quick cheap way to go.  
Problems with this?  It sort of gums up my vertical installation, 
though I suppose I could always move the vertical to a pole in 
the yard.  Doesn't quite get up that high.  Maybe another option 
would be one of those roof towers.  Is a small 3-el beam on a mast 
a good idea?  Maybe with a mast, I could just stick the thing
up and hope for the best with the city issues?  This might be a good
interim measure to train the neighbors to get used to big antenna.

2.  Make the step up to some kind of tower. I'm
not really sure what my options here are.  Price-wise, I see
lots of towers that could work.  With a tower, maybe I could move up
to an a4s with the 40m add on -- and I do like 40, so that would
be a plus for me.  Still, there a lot of big issues here.  Especially
the getting the thing legally approved and all the those 'crank-up'
horror stories.  I have been reading the old messages.  Still some
people seem to have good results with those.  I really
wouldn't mind going for a fixed tower either.  Whatever's the least
hassle in the permit process, I figure.  I'd like to get the thing
up at 70 ft, if possible.  

For future plans, considering the size of the lot, I'm never putting up
a 40m beam.  Still, I have kind of repressed urge to put up some VHF/UHF 
antennae  eventually, and do the VHF contests, so I'd like a tower that 
could  support a small HF beam and maybe antennae for 6/2/440 or 
something.  If  I went to the trouble of constructing the thing. 

3.  Some kind of guyed antenna?  I'm not quite sure where the guy
wires would go.  I assume a 50 foot tower has guys landing 50 feet
away from it, right?  A 70 foot tower has guys 70 feet away?  

I don't know.  Maybe I just need to buy some land in Mantica  
and camp out there.  I'm just trying to figure out what is possible.

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