I have some space and some high trees. I already use a 400ft doublet with
atu for several bands and a 30m half square and get good results. I want to
improve my performance on 17m. I am now thinking about a wire antenna with
reasonable performance for 17m only. I have thought about a full wave loop,
even a bobtail. A broadside array would be great but I am not keen on
antennas with reflectors or directors because of the complexity of support
ropes. So, really some kind of antenna supported by ropes from two trees
would be ideal. Any ideas please?

As others have said, you need to decide where you want to point it first,
because something with significant gain is going to be directional.
For 17m you probably want to go horizontally polarized if you have high
trees.

You might consider a horizontal vee beam, the lengths and enclosed angled
are relatively non-critical. It would also work well on 20 and 15m. I have
also constructed tree-supported yagis (wire) and quads, but you do need to
tune the parasitic elements carefully to get good performance.

Two triangular quad elements (flat side up, fed at bottom point)
separated by three PVC pipe spacers makes a nice quad that will hang
between only two supports. I used to have a couple of those up for 20m and 15m.

Tor
N4OGW

If you can get it high enough, and I assume you can, why not a Delta loop
with the apex at the bottom? I have tried several different 17 meter
antennas, but the Delta loop is the best I found. True, it is only
bi-directional, but mine is NE/SW and works pretty well in those directions.
I use a Sigma 5 vertical dipole for everything else, but the loop is better
that the vertical in it's favored directions by a lot.
I also used a half square on 30 meters, but have since removed it in favor
of a simple inverted vee. I found the half square, while very effective on
transmitting, was noisy on receive. The vee 'heard' things better and seems
just as effective on transmitting. Fortunately, I was able to get the vee's
apex up to 45 feet. Anything lower than that favors the half square on 30. I
mention this because I also tried a half square on 17, but the loop was MUCH
better.

--
Jim Bob Buckeye
AKA
**** Jim Leder****
K8CXM since 1961
IBM retiree since 1999
http://home.fuse.net/k8cxm/


"Alan Taylor" wrote in message
...
I have some space and some high trees. I already use a 400ft doublet with
atu for several bands and a 30m half square and get good results. I want to
improve my performance on 17m. I am now thinking about a wire antenna
with reasonable performance for 17m only. I have thought about a full wave
loop, even a bobtail. A broadside array would be great but I am not keen
on antennas with reflectors or directors because of the complexity of
support ropes. So, really some kind of antenna supported by ropes from two
trees would be ideal. Any ideas please?

Alan VK6BN

Try this
http://www.gopherlink.com/DeltaXray/...rComments.html

Rich
*********************************************NN
"Jim Leder" wrote in message
...
If you can get it high enough, and I assume you can, why not a Delta loop
with the apex at the bottom? I have tried several different 17 meter
antennas, but the Delta loop is the best I found. True, it is only
bi-directional, but mine is NE/SW and works pretty well in those
directions. I use a Sigma 5 vertical dipole for everything else, but the
loop is better that the vertical in it's favored directions by a lot.
I also used a half square on 30 meters, but have since removed it in favor
of a simple inverted vee. I found the half square, while very effective on
transmitting, was noisy on receive. The vee 'heard' things better and
seems just as effective on transmitting. Fortunately, I was able to get
the vee's apex up to 45 feet. Anything lower than that favors the half
square on 30. I mention this because I also tried a half square on 17, but
the loop was MUCH better.

--
Jim Bob Buckeye
AKA
**** Jim Leder****
K8CXM since 1961
IBM retiree since 1999
http://home.fuse.net/k8cxm/


"Alan Taylor" wrote in message
...
I have some space and some high trees. I already use a 400ft doublet with
atu for several bands and a 30m half square and get good results. I want
to improve my performance on 17m. I am now thinking about a wire antenna
with reasonable performance for 17m only. I have thought about a full wave
loop, even a bobtail. A broadside array would be great but I am not keen
on antennas with reflectors or directors because of the complexity of
support ropes. So, really some kind of antenna supported by ropes from two
trees would be ideal. Any ideas please?

Alan VK6BN

Some good ideas, thanks.
Uni or Bi directional are both OK. I can get about 55ft in height. I just
want to use the space I have as effectively as I can for a 17m antenna. I am
OK for quite a few bands with my existing antennas but cant put up my tower
because of the visual impact! I will look at some of the antennas you have
suggested.

73 Alan

"Alan Taylor" wrote in message
...
I have some space and some high trees. I already use a 400ft doublet with
atu for several bands and a 30m half square and get good results. I want to
improve my performance on 17m. I am now thinking about a wire antenna
with reasonable performance for 17m only. I have thought about a full wave
loop, even a bobtail. A broadside array would be great but I am not keen
on antennas with reflectors or directors because of the complexity of
support ropes. So, really some kind of antenna supported by ropes from two
trees would be ideal. Any ideas please?

Alan VK6BN