[VHFcontesting] More Antenna work : 1296 Yagi

[Dave Vondrasek]

It's proven I can't put all the VHF/UHF AND HF antenna's on a single tower
and perform as well as I wish... So another tower started to grow in the
back yard today. I'll give it a week to let it's root get a good hold before
I start adding stalks and taking it to it's final resting height. The
question is what needs to be put where on what tower..  

Current:
Tower#1 : 55' Rohn 25G with 24' 2" mast.
Present antennas from top to bottom.

M^2 9WL  432
M^2 5WL  144
M^5 5ele  50
Cushcraft A4S w/40 mtr kit.

Desire is to have stacked 5WL on 144 and add a M^2 1296 23CM35. The New
tower will only be around 30 feet with a 15 foot mast. As I work more
VHF/UHF then I do HF, I plan to move the A4S to the new tower, it'll loose
15 feet in height, but also loose around 75 feet of feed line loss as the
new tower is closer to the shack. I can also move the 6 Meter yagi to the
new tower and it will rest at 40 feet on the mast, and again loose around 75
feet in line loss.

This opens tower #1 for more mast room and I can stack the 2M5WL's the
recommended 16 foot spacing and place the 432 9WL above the stacked pair. It
even leaves room for me to stack a set of 432/9WL if I wanted.. Now the
question I'm dealing with..I have the 1296 yagi on the ground and have never
mounted it... I can mount it on tower#1 and it will rest at around 75' at
the tip of the mast. Or, I can mount it on top of tower#2 at around 40 feet.
My question is what has the most advantage on 1296, height or line loss. My
TS-2000X only puts out 10 watts on 1296, so I need every watt I can get to
the yagi. On tower #1 it will use 86 feet of LDF6, feed to 80 feet of LDF4.
On tower #2 it will be feed with 45 feet of LDF6, then to 15 feet of LDF4.
Will the lower line loss compensate for the loss in height, or is it worth
the height advantage over line loss. Plans to stack a "pair" of the 1296
yagi's also are on the board if able.

Dave
N5ITO/EM23
http://www.n5ito.com