[TowerTalk] Converting a vee to a top-loaded vertical

[Dick Green]

Hello TowerTalkians,

I'm decommissioning an 80M vee that I have mounted 65' up a tree (I just put
up an 80M delta loop elsewhere on the property.) I would like to use the 80M
vee pulley mount to put up something decent for 160M. I could use the mount
for an inverted-L, but would need to suspend the far end of the horizontal
portion from another tree (that, ahem, happens to be slightly over the
property line...)

It occurs to me that converting the vee to a top-loaded vertical might be
easier. In his section on the "T" antenna, ON4UN says the length of the T
should be about twice as long as the missing portion of the 1/4-wave
vertical. If the T wires are sloping, they have to be a little longer. If I
use a 65' vertical wire, it seems to me that the existing legs of the 80M
vee ought to be just about the perfect length (68' each) for the sloping
top-loading wires. Why not take out the coax and center insulator and
replace it with a vertical wire connected to the two existing sloping wires?
Has anyone tried a conversion like this or set up a top-loaded 160M vertical
with similar dimensions? How can I determine the correct length for each
wire? I don't know the first thing about antenna modeling software!

BTW, my plan is to use two elevated radials, about 130 feet each. I figured
I'd slope them up at 45 degrees from the ground to about 10 feet. Would it
be better to elevate the vertical element (i.e., make it 55' long instead of
65') and not slope the radials? Another issue is that the radials would be
in the same plane as the sloping elements. Any problem with this?

Any help I can get with this idea will be much appreciated.

Thanks & 73,
Dick WC1M


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