On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 16:36:07 -0400, Phil LaMarche wrote: >Just lost all my wire antenna's in the hurricane just passed. The wire >broke in the wind. What should I purchase to replace what is lost?
Sorry to hear of your bad luck. If you want to stick with dipoles, go to Home Depot and buy the biggest copper wire that you think you can support. I like #8 or #10 for long runs that are fed by RG8 or RG11, or #12 for shorter runs and runs that don't need to support as much weight. I would also look at WHAT elements failed. Was it the wire, the attachment points, the insulators? Whatever those weak points were, do them "beefier" than what you did before. IMO, anything #14 or larger is a fraction of a dB from #8, and many of us have made lots of QSO's with wires as small as #18 to #22 (although you may see a dB or two of loss for the small wire size). If you're a DX chaser, a vertical with a decent ground system is a fine alternative. So is a good long wire with a decent counterpoise. Many folks swear by something called an inverted L, or even tying both sides of a feedline together and feeding it as a long wire with the dipole providing top loading. The latter configuration works VERY well for me on 80 and 160. To make this work, there can't be a balun at the antenna, because this would disconnect the top section from the vertical section. So if and when you use this dipole as a dipole, you need a balun between the tuner and the feedline. Jim Brown K9YC _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
