[TowerTalk] Wire antennas

[Kelly Taylor]

Hi all,

Looks like I might finally get my tower up at the cottage this year, but in the interim, I’m looking at/for some ideas on improving station performance. 

Antennas now include a delta loop for 20m 15 feet off ground and a Carolina windom at 31 feet. The arborial gods haven’t granted VE4 redwoods or tall Georgia pines, so height will always be a problem. The delta loop isn’t remarkably better than the windom. 

I don’t regret buying the windom, despite Jim’s well-stated and quite accurate objections to OCF feed systems. Even with bonding being an in-progress situation, RFI and RF haven’t been an issue, even with only 20 feet separation of antennas and sat dish. It’s been an OK way of getting on the air, though the marketing certainly provides insight into why such antennas are so easily sold: people see what they want to see. 

Some of my ideas include:
1. 20-m vertical beam, using an aluminum driven and two Spiderbeam-style passive elements of wire. Choked feedpoint with cable running away at 90 degrees. It would point towards the Ohio-Virginia, for SS primarily. Other directions would settle for the windom. 

2. Getting resonant, choked dipoles as high as possible and in the clear. Maybe even a fan dipole. 

3. A variation on Belrose’s half-delta loop for 80. 

Anyone have any thoughts?

73, kelly, ve4xt 



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