[TowerTalk] 80M attic antenna

[Chuck Counselman]

At 4:54 PM -0400 5/20/03, Dinsterdog at aol.com wrote:
>I have a rather large attic whereas height and space is reasonable 
>to set up a center fed dipole. Can anyone suggest the best 
>configeration for setting the antenna up for stateside ragchewing 
>for around 3.900MHz +-200KHz.....

An 80-m dipole that close to ground is virtually omnidirectional, so 
don't worry about what direction it runs.  Just install it as high as 
possible, with the centermost portion as high and straight as 
possible.  The ends, which don't carry much current and don't radiate 
much, can be bent 90 degrees pretty much with impunity.



>and also, any food for thought experience with antenna style and feed?

You can't beat a center-fed dipole.  Feed it with coax.  I would put 
a 1:1 current balun at the feedpoint.


If you have any wiring (e.g., for electric power, telephone, TV 
antenna, alarm system, whatever) in your attic, put effective 
common-mode chokes on all of it, because in the near-field of your 
dipole it will be very closely coupled; it will raise your received 
noise level, and your transmitted RF will play havoc with everything 
electronic in your house.

Forget snap-on ferrite "beads."  They have much too little impedance 
to matter on 80 meters.  Wind 12 to 14 turns of each cable on a 
sufficiently large ferrite toroid, type 77 or 43.  Yes, this will 
probably require you to splice extra length into the cable.

73 de Chuck, W1HIS