"gareth" wrote in message ...

"Fred McKenzie" wrote in message
...

Speaking of tape measures, I have an old mil-surplus Hy-Gain Tape
Dipole. Two versions are described at http://www.n2ckh.com/HA4000.htm.

That's very interesting and also proving that there is nothing new under
the Sun!

I'll need to google for the Octopus, though

I agree with Fred that while wanting a beam at a decent height, there may be
some acceptable lower performance alternatives.
At least you could use some of those while still pursuing the optimum.

I've had good luck with an attic loop antenna strung around the rafters and
fed with a tuner.
I haven't had a loop large enough to use on 40 and below, but it worked fine
on 20 and above.

Currently, I use a 14 foot whip mounted on top of a rather large metal patio
cover. It is fed with about 20 feed of RG-8 and a tuner.
Performance is not bad on 20 and above.
I can manually insert a coil to use it on 40 or 80. It is "ok" on 40 and
not so good on 80.

I have a friend who uses a Butternut vertical. It is on a tilt base, and he
keeps it lowered when not in use. His homeowner association has agreed to
that arrangement because it is considered "temporary" instead of permanent.

Good luck.