"Michael Coslo" wrote in message
...
Before I go too much further, Hams should build their own wire antennas.
No excuses.


For some hams, it is cheeper to just buy the wire antennas. By the time you
go to the store or order some wire, get the coax, get the insulators, get
one or two coax connectors, and maybe a balun , it may be cheeper to just
get all in one place for one price. I do build all my wire antennas because
I can get the wire for free and found some insulators for nothing. If
building trap dioples or other special wire antenas, the parts issue is even
greater.

I have an OCF antenna at 45 feet that I use for 80 and 40 meters. It works
much beter than an 80 meter dipole antenna at 25 feet usually. They are at
right angles to each other. I do have a beam for other bands so do not care
how it works on the higher bands. It does seem to have a larger bandwidth
than the regular dipole on 80 meters.