[TowerTalk] "Small pistol" contesting station- how many tribanders and how high?

[Rudy Bakalov]

I am planning my "small pistol" contesting station that I will build next year.  After reading tons of books and articles on antennas, I believe I do want to stack tribanders to cover for the most likely angles of arriving signals.
   
  I have some very specific questions, though:
   
  1. Assuming flat terrain, do I have to run HFTA analysis or there are some "generic" rules of thumb I can use for stacking- say 60/90 or 70/100? I plan on having a single 90' tower.
   
  2. Do I need to calculate arriving angles for my specific location (45N, 79W) or can use existing data?
   
  3. Assuming buying stacking gizmos from Array Solutions to make my life easier, do you anticipate any problems due to stacking different antennas- C31XR on the top and 4el SteppIR at the bottom (will take care of 80 and 40 m by using phased dual-band verticals)?
   
  Your thoughts and experience will be very much appreciated.
   
  73 de Rudy N2WQ