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Several times in this newsgroup I have mentioned the inadequacies of
my location with regard to reception and antennas. I have recently
installed a multi-band dipole antenna and it's much better now.

The antenna has two elements for a flat 40m dipole and two elements
for an "inverted vee" 20m dipole. I have two additional elements for
an "inverted vee" 10m dipole, but those are not yet installed. The
antenna rests on four eight-foot "sturdy stakes" from Home Depot,
which are strapped with hose clamps to existing iron clothesline
poles. The resulting height for the 40m dipole is about thirteen feet
but the feedpoint hangs at about nine feet. I plan on using another
sturdy stake to lift the feedpoint up to the same height as the rest
of the supports.

I got the antenna up at five yesterday afternoon, and my first HF
contact was K5TR who was in the California QSO Party. I jumped in,
and by the time the contest ended I had 72 QSO's, including Alaska on
three different bands, and Germany on 15m.

http://www.twilley.org/~jmt/feedpoint.jpg -- a fuzzy out-of-focus
picture of the feedpoint, showing the choke on the feedline as well as
the elements of the dipole connected by rope and the little red
feedpoint box. Lifting this point another four or five feet in the
air will probably make a big difference.

http://www.twilley.org/~jmt/outerstake.jpg -- a sturdy stake under
load, bending approximately one foot at the top. This bend should
lessen some when the feedpoint is lifted.

Thanks for all the hard work and encouragement.

Jack.
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Jack Twilley
jmt at twilley dot org
http colon slash slash www dot twilley dot org slash tilde jmt slash
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