On 18/01/2015 20:55, Bruno wrote:
Hi all,

I've had a planning application for a tower turned down which is a real
pain. My options are now very limited. I'm in a bungalow with a roof apex
height of 18 feet and I'm not allowed to put up anything much above this
roof line it transpires, so inverted vees that need to be mounted high up
at the feed point like G5RVs are not possible for me. My garden
boundaries limit the length of any wire antenna I might wish to put up to
about 120 feet overall. On the plus side, though, the QTH is several
hundred feet ASL close to the top of the hill and am not overshadowed by
any trees or buildings to speak of.
What's my best choice for an HF antenna under these circs? (I mostly do
CW on 20m & 40m, but would like a bit more band choice ideally if poss).
Many thanks.

Many thanks.


Your QTH is virtually identical to mine - max height of 18 foot, longest
clear run about 85 foot.

I use a doublet - just two 57 foot wires forming the radiator/feeder.
The ATU is 16 turns on a two inch former, tuned by a 250pF variable and
link coupled (about 7 turns) to the rig via a 1000pF variable. This
tunes/matches 80, 60, 40 and 20m. The two capacitors are actually
double 500pF caps - one with sections in series, the other with sections
in parallel.

If local interference is an issue it is important to keep the radiating
section as straight and as horizontal as possible.

PA