Well, this is the setup that I have. I have a quarter wave ground plane
vertical for 40 meters. Not ground mounted, since a ground plane is more
efficient. It is 33 feet tall and made of aluminum tubing. I have it on a
six foot pole because, of hight restrictions due to power lines. It is
directly fed with coax and there are no traps or coils. With a tuner I can
also work 30 and 17 meters. I have a quarter wave ground plane vertical for
20 meters also. The 40 meter antenna is great for pulling out weak signals on
20 since the background noise is lower due to the fact that 33 feet is a half
wave on 20 meters. Many times I have switched to the 40 meter antenna when
working on the 20 meter antenna just to pull weak signals out of the noise.
So, I can cover those bands with this setup. I could also work 15 meters on
the 40 meter vertical put the angle of radiation would be high. I just worked
Russia the other night on 20 meters. I was running my K2 with 15 watts on CW.
I made these antennas from old tubing I had laying around and also from a GAP
Challenger that came down in the wind earlier this year after one of the guys
broke. We get a lot of wind here in Wyoming. :-)
Gary, N7HTS
On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:57:34 -0700
"Darwin, Keith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
If a person wants to work DX on a shoe string which band should they
focus on? I'm assuming it is cheaper to pick one or two bands rather
than to try to be a big gun on all of them. Yea, I know you can work DX
on just about anything but that isn't the point. The question is which
band allows you to get the most bang for the buck.
- 40 meters. A vert of 1/4 to 3/8 wave makes you very competitive on
this band. A dipole at 1/2 wave high is tough to do. A Yagi is even
tougher. The tall vertical is relatively easy and cheap while providing
a better low angle signal than a low horizontal antenna.
- 30 meters. Again. 3/8 vertical. The power limit on 30 makes for a
more level playing field.
- 15 meters. Antenna sizes and heights are manageable. Here a
mono-band yagi on a 25' pole will work well at a moderate cost.
Those are my thoughts. What are yours?
- Keith N1AS -
- K2 5411.ssb.100 -
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