I'd like to put up a 20-10 meter beam (probably the Butternut Butterfly),
a 3-element 6-meter beam above that, and a 2M/440 gain vertical (probably
the Diamond X-510MA) above that, all on a 50-foot Rohn 25G tower that's
guyed at 30 feet.

So that I can figure out how long a mast I need, what are the minimum
spacings between the antennas on a single mast?

"Rick (W-A-one-R-K-T)" wrote in message
news

I'd like to put up a 20-10 meter beam (probably the Butternut Butterfly),
a 3-element 6-meter beam above that, and a 2M/440 gain vertical (probably
the Diamond X-510MA) above that, all on a 50-foot Rohn 25G tower that's
guyed at 30 feet.

So that I can figure out how long a mast I need, what are the minimum
spacings between the antennas on a single mast?


Here is as good a song and dance as any about the spacing.

http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek/stacking/stacking2.htm

Usually on small towers you just do the best you can. I just installed a
stack of antennas . Used a 21 foot joint of pipe on a 60 foot 25 G tower.
About 6 feet is in the tower to the inside tower mounted rotator. That
gives me about 15 feet of pipe out the top. At the very top is a 432 mhz
beam on a 15 foot boom , four feet below is a 2 meter antenna on a 15 foot
boom , five feet below that is a 6 meter beam on a 18 foot boom and then a
triband TH3 just over the top of the tower. All fed with some Davis
Buryflex coax.

The vertical on top should not have much effect on the installation if the
ground plane elements are small

The tower is in a yard of cement and guyed at the 30 and 55 foot levels.

On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:04:52 +0000, Ralph Mowery wrote:

The vertical on top should not have much effect on the installation if the
ground plane elements are small

Suppose I forget the 6 meter beam (I'm not much of a 6-meter fan anyway)
and just put up a beam such as the Butternut Butterfly (although I've been
reading some not-so-nice things about that antenna so might bite the
bullet and go with something like a TA-33Jr) with a VHF gain vertical
above that?

The radials for the vertical will be 1/4 wavelength at 2 meters, or about
19 inches, and there are three of them.

How high above the beam should I space the vertical?

(The URLs you guys provided, nor anything else I've found, don't seem to
get into that...)

"Rick (W-A-one-R-K-T)" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:04:52 +0000, Ralph Mowery wrote:

The vertical on top should not have much effect on the installation if
the
ground plane elements are small

Suppose I forget the 6 meter beam (I'm not much of a 6-meter fan anyway)
and just put up a beam such as the Butternut Butterfly (although I've been
reading some not-so-nice things about that antenna so might bite the
bullet and go with something like a TA-33Jr) with a VHF gain vertical
above that?

The radials for the vertical will be 1/4 wavelength at 2 meters, or about
19 inches, and there are three of them.

How high above the beam should I space the vertical?

(The URLs you guys provided, nor anything else I've found, don't seem to
get into that...)


If you go about 4 or more feet above the beam I doubt the vertical and
radials will have much effect. I didn't mention it but the beams I have up
are all horizontal for working ssb. I don't do much FM from the house. I
do have a seperate antenna near the house about 20 feet up for the 2 meter
and 440 FM repeaters . Also a circular polorised beam for those beams to
work the satalites and they will work the FM repeaters also.

I don't think I would get the JR version of a triband. Not sure about how
much power they will take but not enough for many of the amplifiers. Think
I would go with the Mosley or HYGain for the triband beam. I never did
like the CC brand but that is personal and goes back to the days of the
Ringo and 11 element beams.

Here is a link to my setup.

http://home.earthlink.net/~ku4pt/ima...%20on%20tower/

I think you also asked about how far to put a vertical from the tower. Try
to get it 1/2 wavelength or more away. Any distance from the side of the
tower you put it will give it some lobes and distort the patern.

On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 21:28:35 +0000, Ralph Mowery wrote:

I don't think I would get the JR version of a triband. Not sure about
how much power they will take but not enough for many of the amplifiers.

If I recall correctly the TA33Jr is something like 300 watts. That's
plenty for me... so far there hasn't been anyone I needed to talk to that
I couldn't reach with 200 watts out of the Kenwood or 100 watts out of the
IC-706 or IC-735. In fact a lot of what I do is using 5 watts out of the
FT-817 and it seems I can make the contact as often as not.

Every once in a while I think about getting an amplifier and then I go and
lie down until the thought goes away. :-)

Wasn't always that way... back in the day (late 70's / early 80's) I had
an NCX-5 and an NCL-2000 feeding a TA-33 (full power model). That was
back when we were actually called upon to run phone patches just about
every day on Intercon and MMSN. Then one day I forgot to dial the NCL-2000
back to "tune" mode before tuning up and ended up feeding about 3
kilowatts into the antenna. It didn't like that very much. :-(

Here is a link to my setup.

http://home.earthlink.net/~ku4pt/ima...%20on%20tower/

Nice setup. I think that I probably won't do anything nearly that
comprehensive. So far I haven't had much interest in VHF SSB, and the two
inverted vees and two NVIS dipoles I have work fine on 160 through 40, so
something basic for 20 through 10 and I'll be fine... even that is kind of
a low priority until those bands improve.

"Rick (W-A-one-R-K-T)" wrote in message
news

I'd like to put up a 20-10 meter beam (probably the Butternut Butterfly),
a 3-element 6-meter beam above that, and a 2M/440 gain vertical (probably
the Diamond X-510MA) above that, all on a 50-foot Rohn 25G tower that's
guyed at 30 feet.

So that I can figure out how long a mast I need, what are the minimum
spacings between the antennas on a single mast?


See URL's
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/stacking-yagis/

http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek/stacking/stacking2.htm

Lamont