[TowerTalk] Determine cost-effective tower height

Gene Fuller w2lu at rochester.rr.com
Wed Nov 30 18:09:30 PST 2011


Agreed, HFTA is the way to go. ARRL  Antenna Handbook  ed 21 includes the 
software and instrustrutions you will need. A little hand held GPS will give 
you your tower location, and a fair bit of determination for the novice, 
will give you a great picture of what you have to work with.
Gene / W2LU




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Dievendorff" <dieven at comcast.net>
To: "'Jim Lux'" <jimlux at earthlink.net>; <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 8:25 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Determine cost-effective tower height


>I think HFTA is by Dean Straw, N6BV.  In any case, it's the program you 
>want
> for this.  Ward edited the new Antenna Book, and included Dean's programs.
>
> Dick, K6KR
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lux
> Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 5:00 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Determine cost-effective tower height
>
> On 11/30/11 4:47 PM, Andreas Hofmann wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have decided I need a tower to get better antennas up in the air.
> Thinking about the SteppIR DB 18, 40m 2 el, 20 and up 3el.  Now, my 
> property
> slopes pretty much in every direction by 5 degrees.  I need to determine a
> proper tower height without breaking the bank.
>>
>> I was told I should run a computer program to figure a good height of the
> yagi for my most important directions/DX locations.  In fact a friend of
> mine did the same (on a similarly sloping property) and he found out that 
> a
> 55 foot tower would be similar to a 120 foot tower on a flat ground. 
> Hence
> he put up a 55 foot crank up mast and it is rocking.  He forgot the 
> program
> he used.
>>
>> So, what tool can I use to find the optimal (not maximal) height of a
> tower that would work well here?
>> Also, the tower would be setting on the side of the house with a metal
> roof (roof about 15 feet high), not sure if this would matter...
>>
>> Thanks
>> Andreas
>> KU7T
>>
>
> HFTA by Ward Silver which comes with the ARRL Antenna Book is what you 
> want.
> You enter in the surrounding terrain (or extract it from DEM files, etc.)
> and it calculates the pattern.
>
> Only works for horizontally polarized antennas, by the way.
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