Hi,

I'd like some advice for determining the best antenna to put up in my
situation.

I am getting set to move to a trailer park in northeast arizona, about
50 miles west of Gallup, NM. Locals have no objection to antennas so
long as people don't have to run into them via normal passage ways.
The trailer is 12 feet high by 15 feet wide by 50 feet long, facing
N-S. Nearest certain ground is electrical panel. The water pipe is
metal but could be interrupted throughout system by PVC. There may
also be significant noise from AC systems in park.

Good news is that my wife is giving me an entire walk-in closet for my
station, and that I can lay aluminum foil against all surfaces to
create a Faraday cage.

I have approx 25 to 30 feet between my trailer and neighbors, and a 35
foot altitude streetlamp 6 feet away curb. Soil conductivity is red
clay, extremely poor. Significant rainfall (monsoons) summer to fall.
Winds gusting to 50 or 60 mph during winter. Soil frosts between
October to March.

I would like to work CW DX on 40, 30, 20, and 17 meters. 80 and 160
would
be a bonus. Conventional options such as tower or surplus telephone
pole are out of the question due to cost and lack of available area.
Radials must be buried as children are playing nearby.

Probable options:

1) Load up the streetlamp with an antenna matcher, work against 180
degrees of buried radials out to 1/8 lambda.

2) Solder a series of tin/steel cans (cantenna) using pocket torch and
copper tape to 1/4 lambda with added capacitance hat(s), brace the cans
against the ground and the trailer, work against 270 to 360 degrees of
buried radials out to 3/8 lambda.

3) Create a mast from 40 feet of metal pipe and 15 feet of wood rod,
brace against trailer burying pipe end 10 feet, mount an inverted vee
trap dipole in N-S direction for E-W DX.

4) Pair of masts on either side of the trailer, mount a delta loop
from each mast, feed one loop and use the other as a reflector.

5) Pair of cantennas on each side of the trailer, operating as out of
phase pair of 1/4 lambda verticals.

Which would be best? And where do I place the lightning arrestor(s)?

Thanks,

The Eternal Squire