Joshua, I'm going to second the suggestion that you get a copy of the antenna book.
This isn't a Ford vs. Chevy debate, which is based mostly on preference. There is physics involved here.
If you put an HF vertical near the top of the tower, you'll need two radials on each band you want to operate. Want to work 80? You'll need two radials 5% or so longer than an 80 meter dipole. You can't run 'em down the tower and then spread them out on the ground somehow, they'll need to be resonant, and kinda straight away from the base of the antenna.
Doesn't have to be perfect, but to 30, 40 and 80 you could put up dipoles (as an inverted-V) and have less wire up in the air.
Alternately, you could put up the tower and the beam, and put a vertical at ground level (so you don't need the radials).
I had a multiband HF vertical most of my ham career, on the roof, and it worked well. I also had the opposite problem you report: just too many things around to do anything but put the antenna on the roof.
Rig something on the tower (some sort of halyard) so it's easy to pull wires to the top, and get a bunch of wire for experimenting. Don't worry if one end of the wire is down around ten feet above ground as long as someone can't easily grab the end of the wire.
Good luck, and have fun experimenting. 73 -- Lynn On 5/25/2014 5:31 PM, Joshua Gould wrote:
Ok, I know that this is a topic much like the Ford vs. Chevy debates or the Android vs. Apple debates, but I do have a few questions... I am going to be acquiring a 56 foot Rohn BX tower. I already have a G5RV that I am planning on putting up (still not sure where I'm going to attach the other end of it to, One end will go on the tower.) I'm going to put up a 2m/440 vertical at some point up near the top of the tower. I keep throwing around an HF vertical or a beam. The verticals seem to cover more bands, but the beams are directional. (Would also need a rotor,.. Can a multi band yagi be tuned to a different band, or will it only work on the bands that it's designed for? I'm thinking long term and I'll probably be adding a K3/100 with a KPA500 to the mix in the next year or so... Trying to figure out what will give me the best bang for my buck, so to speak. 73, Joshua Gould K8WXA ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
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