The Antennas

 I think I have everything outside situated the way it's gonna be for a while, a year at least, unless there's a sudden windfall of money and I can buy a tower, this is it for now. 

I've talked about the antennas a little bit in previous posts. Here is more detail with pictures!

Here is a patio-level look at the delta loop:

I highlighted the loop so you could see it. Otherwise, in the picture, it doesn't show up much. In real life, you can see it, but it's not obtrusive. It traverses the yard diagonally at between 7 and 10-or-so feet above ground. I don't know how to measure that peak, but I think its more than 50 and maybe close to 60 feet up. I also don't know exactly how much wire is involved here. I just went for "as big as you can make it." It's over 250 feet. Getting it up to that high point involved a handful of nuts an a bolt for weight, tied to fishing line, and lobbed up there by a 16 year old. After several tries and misses and the headaches that come with throwing the weight into the woods behind the fence, we got a good throw. We got the weight to fall down to ground level, then we cut the fishing line off the spool  and tied the end of a rope to the fishing line. Pulling on the weight then lifted the rope over the branch. When the rope was all the way up and back down, I cut it off the spool and tied the ends together making a loop. Then I attached the wire to the rope and pulled it over the branch. Once it was back down to ground level, we went to the far corner, installed an anchor point to a tree using rope and a bungie cord for flex, and fed the wire through a ceramic insulator. I then walked it across the yard to the house, where I constructed the feedpoint with a balun and the wire ends.

This antenna is a great performer, but...there's always a "but"... there is a 50KW unlimited clear channel AM station antenna 6 miles from here. The loop just gets blasted by it during the day. At night they switch to a N/S directional pattern and I'm kind of in the null for that, so nights are much better. I'm trying to design/build a filter to attenuate that signal so I can use the loop whenever I want. I'll probably blog about it. :-)

Here is a picture from the shack window for the best view of the W3EDP end-fed wire.

The W3EDP antenna is a tune-able all-band antenna, meaning if you have a tuner, you can use this anywhere. If you don't have a tuner...well...don't. lol. The horizontal wire is 84 feet long. Note in the picture, where you see it rise to a point and then it looks like it just dangles down. The point is an insulator I slung over that branch to hold the wire up. The part that drops down actually slopes off into the woods at a much less drastic angle than appears from this perspective. The counterpoise is a 17 foot wire that just hangs straight down. The creator of this antenna, W3EDP, found 17 feet was generally good, but on 20 meters, 6 feet was better. I haven't tried shortening it for 20 meters. It seems to do OK with the longer piece.

The W3EDP feedpoint is outside my 2nd story window. The loop feedpoint is almost patio level. Research suggest the feedpoint on a loop be elevated from the bottom corner, but that elevation is specific to the band you want to work, and since my antennas are multi-band, I wasn't too specific about where it goes.

The left side shows a 2M/70cM feedline. I mounted my mobile V/UHF antenna to a bar clamp and clamped it to my eaves. Works gud!

Here's the W3EDP from the other end of the yard. Near the top of the pic you can see the insulator, and near the window frame you can see the feedpoint.

These are "compromise" antennas, not resonant on a particular ham band, but they appear to be efficient radiators. I have made contacts in Argentina, Russia, Japan, Indonesia, and elsewhere with these humble wires and a 20 watt radio. I'm pleased.

In the future I would like to install a 40-50 foot tower on the south (uphill) side of the house and put a multiband vertical on top for 80/40/20 meters. That's money tho, so...it's not a short term goal or anything. More like keeping my eyes open for accidentally falling into circumstances that allow it. ha!

Thanks for reading, ed 73!