[TowerTalk] LINE FOR tree strung dipoles

[jimlux]

Michael Ryan wrote:
> No doubt due to the state of the economy and the real estate market, not to
> mention the fact the some folks are cutting back on expenses, such as those
> used to support dipoles, they are indeed using THHN wiring, or common house
> wiring.  Trouble is they are using this wiring while it is STILL WITHIN the
> vacant house next door.  Makes for a very stealthy antenna.  - Mike

why wait for vacancy.. the lots in my neighborhood are 50 feet wide, so 
the houses on either side are basically 100 ft (call it about 30 meters) 
apart. If I load up the two houses on either side as the two sides of a 
dipole, accounting for the large capacitance (the wiring in the house 
looks like a big ball at RF), I should be almost right on for 80m.

There is a little challenge with the balun, since we have underground 
utilities.  If I lived in an area with overhead lines, you could just 
throw a big core around the power drop and transformer couple it as a 
common mode signal.  Think of it as narrowband over powerline  (NPL).

I confess there *may* be some RFI issues with this strategy, but at 
least it's visually stealthy.