Once I get my licence, I would like to get a doublet antenna up to
work as many HF bands as possible. The problem is that down one side
of my garden there are power lines and at the bottom of the other side
of the garden is a two story flat/apartment. If I have the dipole
running down the power line side of the garden it will have to slope
from about 40feet to about 20 feet. Will this be a problem with
regards to the balance of the antenna and cause any problems such as
RF in the shack etc?

The alternative is to get some kind of thin pole and have one end of
the antenna right outside one of the flats kitchen window which I'm
not to keen on.

Any advice appreciated

Peter

wrote:
of my garden there are power lines and at the bottom of the other side
of the garden is a two story flat/apartment. If I have the dipole
running down the power line side of the garden it will have to slope
from about 40feet to about 20 feet. Will this be a problem with
regards to the balance of the antenna and cause any problems such as

Peter, keep any antennas well away from the power lines--very very
important! As far as problems, if you're talking about a classic
two-sided wire antenna fed by balanced line (ladder-line, etc.), any
problems are likely to be tiny and more theoretical than practical. I've
used antennas like that, and big horizontal loops, since 1991, and because
they all hang from available supports (trees, mostly), they wander all
over, they vary widely in height from one place to another. The great
thing about antennas like this is that they don't have to be pretty to
work well. :-) Higher will be better, for performance--but don't let
that worry you. Put some wire up and see how it works!

(And DO keep it away from the power lines!) GL!

Peter,

I agree that you should keep the doublet or dipole away from the power line.

Sloping such an antenna will work fine. I have two 75 meter dipoles that
slope and they do great. I fed them in the center and keep the feedline
going away from the antenna at as close to a right angle as possible.

Dave K4JRB

Thanks both of you for the advice


peter