Best Multiband HF Vertical on a roof Options
matrixk...@googlemail.com
Can anyone recommend a verical antenna that i can mount on the roof
of
my 3 story house that works from 80m upwards and wont upset the
nighbours (too much). I have looked at various Butternuts etc but it
seems like they only work well when ground mounted. Also keen to get
one that is not to noisy as in a relativly built up area. I would not
operate with more than 100W
I have looked at reviews on EHAM but they all seem to be mixed.
Thanks
Andiroo
Cecil Moore
> Can anyone recommend a verical antenna that i can mount on the roof
> of my 3 story house that works from 80m upwards and wont upset the
> nighbours (too much).
A 22 foot antenna with four 22 elevated radials driven
by an SC-230 will do a good job on 40m-10m and not bad
on 75m, at least on CW.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com
Ed Cregger
--------------
I used a roof mounted Butternut HF6V for several years with excellent
results. Especially when compared to no antenna at all. Plus I never ran
more than 100 watts. That is back before I got my amplifier, way before.
The surprise came when I bought and installed a Van Gordan Shorty All
Bander and slopped the vee from the base of the tripod on which the
Butternut was mounted down into my backyard. The legs were at a 50
degree angle and the peak (apex at the tripod) was pointed toward the
southeast. The Shorty All Bander clearly out performed the HF6V (using
steel siding as a counterpoise) on 30 meters downward. They performed
about the same on 20 meters upward. The Shorty All Bander would have
been invisible to everyone had I used a standoff on my third story and
kept everything in the backyard, of which I didn't have much at all.
Today, if I couldn't work it out with the Shorty All Bander, I would buy
an autotuner for wire antennas and mount a 30' piece of wire or tubing
at ground level and place the tuner at the base, in a protective
enclosure. I did discover later on that my Butternut did work a bit
better on the ground, but the 50 ohm match went to hell, as predicted by
others.
All of the antennas I have mentioned worked well enough for me to easily
make contacts all over the world with just 100 watts. Any antenna is
better than no antenna. Don't let the antenna snobs get you down.
Ed, NM2K
Ed Cregger
Ian White GM3SEK
>
>Today, if I couldn't work it out with the Shorty All Bander, I would
>buy an autotuner for wire antennas and mount a 30' piece of wire or
>tubing at ground level and place the tuner at the base, in a protective
>enclosure.
Me too - with a 100W transceiver but no antenna, I wouldn't spend a
single penny on factory-made HF antennas. Instead, I'd invest that money
in a remote auto-ATU that can be used with a wide range of future
antennas.
Most of the cost and complication of factory-built multiband antennas
comes from the need for impedance matching on each band. With an
auto-ATU, those worries are over - any convenient length of wire or
tubing will work, and costs almost nothing.
You also have a lot more freedom to play with new antennas. The auto-ATU
takes care of the matching chores, while you have all the fun... and
that's priceless.
Unfortunately, the picture changes at power levels much above 100W,
because the inductors, capacitors and relays suitable for a high-power
auto-ATU are very expensive in commercial production quantities.
However, there are still plenty of large RF parts available as one-off
surplus bargains for individual constructors. It would be an interesting
project to strip down a smart modern auto-ATU, ignore the on-board RF
parts, and use the bare board as the controller for a much larger
home-built ATU (using the same L and C values but with much higher RF
voltage and current ratings).
--
73 from Ian GM3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek
Pat Whelton
> Can anyone recommend a verical antenna that i can mount on the roof
> of
> my 3 story house that works from 80m upwards and wont upset the
> nighbours (too much). >
>
> Andiroo
My son mounted a 5BTV on a 25' push-up mast with 4 elevated radials for
40-10 mtrs and 2 radials for 80 mtrs (22 total radials). We later added the
30 meter mod and it's now essentially a 6BTV. This antenna works like gang
busters on 30, 40 and 80 meters. We don't use it much on 20, 15 and 10
because we have other antennas for those bands. Your mileage may vary but
from my experience if you can get the 5BTV off the ground and put some
elevated radials under it it will perform very nicely for you especially if
you like low band DX and don't have a lot of room for antennas.
Regards,
Pat - KZ5J
rick....@gmail.com
Rick KC4RP