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Old December 25th 08, 03:21 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
Steve Stone[_2_] Steve Stone[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Dec 2008
Posts: 19
Default HF Vertical in a septic leach field

My advice is to just put the damned thing up somewhere and get on the air.

It has been up for about a month Ed.
I wanted to see what people suggested, since this is the first vertical
I've worked with at my QTH.

Real life results with a IC-746pro and 100 watts on 80m, 40m, and 20m
show this Hustler 5 band vertical as installed works fairly well when
contacts are at least 300 miles or further from my QTH.
Not a flame thrower, but does the job, even from my New York QTH to NWS
offices in Spokane WA and Sacramento, CA.
during SWD.

Only issue is 15m SWR is 3:1 across the entire band, which according to
directions suggest some interaction with objects in my back yard. The
IC746Pro internal tuner can barely tune 15m down to a respectable SWR. I
can tune in 15M if I switch over to a TS-430S and AT-250 external tuner
combo.

For stuff closer in I switch to a 150 foot random wire about 20 feet high.
Come spring I might rework this antenna to be a multi band dipole and
restring it from higher tree branches as long as I can maintain
clearance from the vertical.

My RACES group has the same vertical antenna mounted on the roof top of
the local EOC without radials, about 40 feet above local terrain,
attached to a TS-2000 with about 280 feet of LMR400. I believe the
mounting point is tied into building iron work. We've gotten good
results with SSB on 80 to the state EOC 120 miles away as well as
Winlink Pactor connections to places as far out as British Columbia in
western Canada. We had an option to put it on a 190 foot county comm
tower but I decided not to so we could maintain the antenna ourselves
and not have to wait for profe$$ional tower climbers to schedule repair
actions as needed.

Steve
N2UBP