What antenna shall I make with a 8m pole?

[Tigersaw]

I've had fun building antenna the last few chilly weekends, I've made a 2m white stick, 2m beam, 2m Bazooka and this weekend a double bazooka for 10m.
I've got one of those 8m telescopic flagpoles coming in the post this week, so I'm wondering what to build next, vertical obviously.
I could try something 11m, or maybe 6m, or even 20m if there is such a design.
I don't want anything that requires ground planes to work, just ram it on a stick or clamp it to the wall.

Anyone have any suggestions, favourites?

[mattltm]

20M vertical with 4 ground planes?

Mount it 1/2 way up your pole so the top radiator is running up the last 5M of the pole and pull the ground plane legs out to a 45 deg angle. I have one that I use with a 10M pole. Works great.

[Tigersaw]

Ground planes are a no-no I'm afraid in my mini suburban garden. Looking for something that can be erected and later stored at the side of the house pretty simply.

[jomac]

Im in the same situation, unfortunately there isnt a simple solution, however, if you google SM0VPO he has some good idea's on antenna's for apartments, im sure one will interest you.

John

[mattltm]

Ground planes are a no-no I'm afraid in my mini suburban garden. Looking for something that can be erected and later stored at the side of the house pretty simply.

I don't mean "on the floor" ground planes.

I mean a 10M pole with 5M of wire going from the top to 1/2 down the pole (connected to coax inner) then 4 more 5M wires (connected to coax braid) going from the middle of the pole down to the ground pulled out a 45 deg angle. They can be tied off to anything handy.

Mine takes about 5 minutes to set up and leaves no trace when its gone. Works great for 20M DX.

[Monsta]

what about using it as a support for an Inverted L ....40m/80m ?

[Tigersaw]

I really don't have that much space, a 10m x 12m garden with a conservatory sticking out across the middle, so any ground planes are almost impossible.

I've got a G Whip 10m end fed that I'm going to try vertically; will be a high Q tuned vertical with no ground plane required - will see how it compares to the recommended orientation.

[mattltm]

I really don't have that much space, a 10m x 12m garden with a conservatory sticking out across the middle, so any ground planes are almost impossible.

I've got a G Whip 10m end fed that I'm going to try vertically; will be a high Q tuned vertical with no ground plane required - will see how it compares to the recommended orientation.

A vertical with no ground is only 1/2 an antenna. Make sure you use a common mode choke to stop the feed line radiating and causing interference.

You only need a 4x4M space for a 20m vertical with ground planes. At 10M long, you could also fit a simple horizontal dipole for 20M in.

[Monsta]

don't abandon the L idea
it rocks on 40m and will tune on other bands too
remember the length is from your chimney!

this one is trapped for 80m use as well ...

it's cheap ....copper earth rod ...£8, any old 16g wire ...£10, and the optional trap is just a coax on a former or you can buy that too for £10..monofilment = fishing line

the dearest thing is the non-metallic pole, and you already got that ...

[jomac]

Im following this with interest as im in pretty much the same situation, however i live in a block of 4 apartments, ground floor and i dont have access to the chimney..

Even a vertical with ground planes would mean putting it in the middle of the garden which is a bit impractical.

I know they exist, but ive yet to find a sensible design for a vertical that i can build.

I do have a CB base antenna a 5/8 which is approx 5.5 metres long, im hoping to use that an any design i do.

J

[Monsta]

what bands are u aiming for ?

[jomac]

Well the quick response would be everything, but common sense dictates otherwise.

If i could get 20m through to 10m that would be the bare minimum, 40m to 10m ideal, and anything above that would be a good bonus.

The second choice would be 40m through to 6m if thats possible?

John

[Monsta]

in my experience on a vertical ...you do fine on 10/11 as so many others use verticals...whilst on 20/40 and longer the horizontal seems to rock ...as most of the people you are hearing are on beams or cobwebbs ...all horizontal.

On 20 and 40 i hear people all the time BOOMING through from Europe on Inverted L homemade wires or end feds ...stunning. Whatever you do try to be selective and resonant ....I tried the old multibander, capacitor, coils fancy trick antennas ...they just dont cut it ...regardless of what i was told.

Cobwebs are good ....5 resonant bands 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 ...hard to tune ....but once they are right....brilliant.
Wires rock on 40/80 as you can imagine

Remember there is always some spiled bast***d with plenty of land and great neighbours who can slap a strumech up and balance all sorts of ridiculous boomlegnth beams on there ....you won't beat them. So dont get hung up


It it were me ...

Cobwebb for 10-20, mounted on the same pole as a trilinear for 2m/6m and 70cm and then string a wire up for 40 (trap it for 80 ...if you fancy that)

in fact thats what i did

here it is

[M6AVH]

I have just started on HF really.

I have put a 10m pole in the garden and its just higher than the top windows of the house (I have shortened it to about 8 meters), string out about 10 meters from the window to the pole with an ATU and its worked very well.

See the picture attached, I did not even read up about it I just tried it, it tuned with an ATU with nearly no SWR relfection at all.

If you look at my QRZ page you will see how many contact I have made with it. I even went on a top of a hill locally with my pro whip antenna 8 meters and only made about 2 contacts that day.

So you have the top 10m cable going to the top of the pole to the center coax using a 4:1 Balun (came with the pro whip antenna)

Then a second cable which is in line with the washing line in the garden with was lucky! on the shielding of the coax again negative side of the Balun.

I was looking at it this morning thinking I can turn it into a L shape. but it works as it is and without a trap for 7mhz which I am looking into improving it.

2014-01-01 23:27:00 S58FA 40m 7.000 SSB JN86fn Alfred Feher unseen
2013-11-16 12:52:00 YO3CZW 15m 21.220 SSB KN34bk MITRUT MARIUS confirmed
2013-11-16 12:57:00 UT0U 15m 21.240 SSB KN59rb Sergey Rebrov unseen
2013-11-16 09:43:00 G4WZTQ 40m 7.125 SSB unseen
2013-11-14 07:20:00 DC5GA 40m 7.125 SSB JN47fx Alexander Friedrich confirmed
2013-11-10 08:44:00 M5STC 40m 7.125 SSB IO91vl STEVE unseen
2013-11-10 17:10:00 M0OCK 2m 145.500 FM IO91vl Alan J Mock unseen
2013-10-26 13:06:00 GM6NX 40m 7.143 SSB IO86bc Stirling & District Amateur Radio Society unseen
2013-10-26 13:05:00 GU3HFN 40m 7.157 SSB IN89ql * GUERNSEY AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY on hold
2013-10-26 11:53:00 M4D 40m 7.091 SSB IO92qv John M Hotchin unseen
2013-10-26 11:34:00 MW0SGX 40m 7.125 SSB IO81fq John Bidwell on hold
2013-10-26 11:23:00 PI4COM 40m 7.125 SSB JO22ga CONTESTGROEP OUDE MAAS (COM) unseen
2013-10-26 11:02:00 EI1A 40m 7.138 SSB IO62el Olivier Vandenbalck unseen
2013-10-26 09:47:00 TM1A 40m 7.143 SSB JN18eu CONTEST-CALL-2013 Radio Club F6KOP unseen
2013-10-25 21:45:00 LZ1RAY 40m 7.143 SSB KN22po RAYCHO KATSAROV unseen

[Monsta]

not sure what u have there ....but if it works ..it works! on 40 too
not sure what in your pic is feeder and what is antenna
its either an unusual doublet or a wierd dipole

is it a metal pole ...just curious as to how its getting to ground, but then again
if its a perfect dipole ..it wouldnt need it ...interesting radiation pattern i am thinking

if i had that run i would definitely go for one of these babies
check out that list . i KNOW you can make wires for pennies, but NOT like this guys
they are awesome ...i have seen them, pretuned INDIVIDUALLY and comes with the report

http://www.gwhip.co.uk/zepp.htm

the eham reviews speak for themselves ....
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/9437

PS. Geoff, if you are reading this ..a discount on a 40m one would be nice