Steve, how low on space are you? There are a lot of us out here with our
pet wire antennas, but we can't recommend them unless we know how much room
you've got.

How about this one? Stick a pole up in the center of your roof, as high as
it will stand without guys (probably 10 ft). From there, run two wires down
to either end of the house, then, from the edges of the roof, run the wires
to the far back corners of your yard, then along the fence-top, until the
ends of the wires are about to meet. Feed it with twin lead and a tuner.
It's not a monster, but it will get you on the air, and will work DX, if you
know what you're doing...

- Mike KI6PR
El Rancho R.F., Ca

"Steve Trook" wrote
Soon to be new to HF. I need help in choosing a dipole. I want to work
10-80 meters but low on space.....any ideas? help??

Steve -

This type of antenna works, and can work VERY well.

But Reg left out a very important detail: You will need some
form of wide-range antenna tuner for multi-band operation.

Your rig may have a built-in tuner that will work over at least some
of the frequency range. Another option is to buy a desk-top tuner.
(Life will be simpler if you buy one that is sized to your present and
near-future power requirements.) Yet another option is to implement
a tuner in distributed form using switchable lengths of the same ladder
line you use in your feedline. (This will require some home-brewing
aptitude, and possibly a very tolerant XYL.) There is a strong advocate
of this approach that frequently posts here, and can tell you all about it.
Don't forget you will need to re-tune when you QSY, unless you have
implemented some form of auto-tuner.

For what it's worth, I dealt with a similar situation using W9INN multi-
band dipoles in an inverted vee configuration; and I'd do it again in a
heartbeat. Meanwhile, a friend of mine decided to try the classic vee+
ladder line+tuner approach, and he's been fighting it for a few months now.
He's on his second or third tuner, while I don't even need one. I think
he'd do it "my" way, if he was starting again.

73, Ed