[UK-CONTEST] Antenna advice!

[Chris G3SJJ]

Tammie, I would suggest firstly you need work out want to achieve then 
try and design an antenna system to work towards that goal. You might 
find you have to make alterations to the design over months or even 
years to do that. You will find though that your technical and 
propagational knowledge will increase also, and that's what the hobby is 
all about. I used to find that by choosing one band per season (say Oct 
to Feb) I could concentrate on making the antenna as efficient as 
possible as well as getting to know the band very well, which is also 
important.

160m is surprisingly not the easiest band to choose. There is limited 
SSB activity these days but there are numerous CW contests and in the 
autumn/winter months a lot of inter-continental DX available. 80m will 
give you a wider choice of activity, with intra-UK, European and some 
inter-continental activity. Sunset and sunrise in the UK gives longer 
distance propagation.

On the technical side a useful guide is to remember that the maximum 
radiation occurs a quarter of a wavelength from the far end of an 
element. So, with your 100ft of wire, that will be about 63 ft on 80m. 
That is the bit that does the work. It needs to be as high as possible 
and in the clear. If you are looking for longer distances then having 
some of the wire either side of that in the vertical plane will be 
better. Like an inverted L. Once you have worked out the physical 
dimensions, you can then look at feed impedance and how you should match it.

Might all sound a bit complicated if you haven't that before but it can 
be good fun and very educational. In my early days I went through this 
same process adding information year by year.

So, define what you want to do and ask some more questions! AND, listen 
around the bands at various times of the day (and night if possible)

73 Chris G3SJJ



Tammie Evans wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> (Thank you Ray GM4CXM!)
>
> Desperately needing some advice and guidance please!  I'm afraid the bug 
> has now most definitely bitten and the more practice I get the more I 
> feel that I want to stretch my wings and expand my horizons.
>
> I would love to have a really reliable 80m antenna, I'd also like to 
> have a bash at Top Band.  My problems are threefold; space, experience 
> and money.
>
> In what is rapidly becoming my aerial farm, I can't put up anything much 
> longer than 100 feet.  I can't afford the four or five hundred pounds 
> needed for a nice beam and I don't have enough knowledge to do viable 
> experimentation.
>
> Any ideas or suggestions would be most welcome!
>
> 73 Tammie M3ENF
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