I am now in the market for a new vertical after my old R7000 was hit by
lightning.

My old R7000 was mounted on a 45 foot Tower. (At this height, the antenna
worked great!)

I am considering purchasing a SmallIR vertical (from www.steppir.com) and
mounting it on this 45 foot tower with radials dropping downward from the
tower. I won't be able to easily guy the vertical but it would appear that
it is pretty strong with a 80 MPH wind survival rating without radials.

Is it a good idea to install the SmallIR on top of a 45 foot Tower?
Has anyone successfully used the SmallIR vertical mounted on a 45 foot
Tower?

I am also considering purchasing the BigIR vertical. But if its guying
requirements, I won't be able to mount it on the Tower. Instead, I am
thinking of using my elevated deck as a support. My Back wooden deck is
about 9 foot off the ground with a 4 foot fence and some posts about 7 feet
tall. I am thinking of mounting the antenna feed point about 8 to 9 feet
off the ground and use the bottom of the deck to install radials. I will
use the post to provide additional support instead of using guy wires.

Will this work? (I realise I will have to fiddle with the length of the
radials)

73's
Rob
Quebec

I am now in the market for a new vertical

My old R7000 was mounted on a 45 foot Tower. (At this height, the antenna
worked great!)

I am considering purchasing a SmallIR vertical (from www.steppir.com) and
mounting it on this 45 foot tower with radials dropping downward.

Rob, You must enjoy spending money on antennas:-) If you can get an inverted
vee up 45' at apex, and feed it with ladder line and a tuner, then you have
something that will exceed what you are proposing. A 50-65' per leg vee will
get you on 80M-10M, and possibly 160M.

The performance on the lower bands (160M-40M) will exceed any store bought
vertical. On 20M-10M you may not see any difference in performance, depends on
what dx you are trying to snag.

If you are going to put a vertical 45' in the air with radials sloping
downward, why not try ladder line and a tuner and see what happens. You will
spend considerably less $.

73 Gary N4AST

Hi Rob -

You might talk to the SteppIR folks about using one of their DIPOLES on your
tower. It could probably be mounted vertically if you were so inclined.

If I were going to try that, I would try it first without a balun, and make
sure
the dipole leg adjacent to the tower was connected to the shield side.
But you could be assured that the dipole would work killer in the
conventional
horizontal orientation, IF the airspace it occupies isn't a problem for you.

Have fun es 73, Ed

"Rob" wrote in message
. ..
I am now in the market for a new vertical after my old R7000 was hit by
lightning.

My old R7000 was mounted on a 45 foot Tower. (At this height, the antenna
worked great!)

I am considering purchasing a SmallIR vertical (from www.steppir.com) and
mounting it on this 45 foot tower with radials dropping downward from the
tower. I won't be able to easily guy the vertical but it would appear
that
it is pretty strong with a 80 MPH wind survival rating without radials.

Is it a good idea to install the SmallIR on top of a 45 foot Tower?
Has anyone successfully used the SmallIR vertical mounted on a 45 foot
Tower?

I am also considering purchasing the BigIR vertical. But if its guying
requirements, I won't be able to mount it on the Tower. Instead, I am
thinking of using my elevated deck as a support. My Back wooden deck is
about 9 foot off the ground with a 4 foot fence and some posts about 7
feet
tall. I am thinking of mounting the antenna feed point about 8 to 9 feet
off the ground and use the bottom of the deck to install radials. I will
use the post to provide additional support instead of using guy wires.

Will this work? (I realise I will have to fiddle with the length of the
radials)

73's
Rob
Quebec

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the post. Well I considered the SteppIR dipole instead of the
vertical. But my Tower is a self supporting TV Tower. It isn't that
strong. It handled the R7000 without any problems. But I fear that extra
windload of a dipole (or my dream yagi!) would be too much. (One day I will
put up a real tower and a yagi!)

I like the low DX angle and omni directional pattern of a vertical. I live
in the country so QRN is not a big problem.

I have found that the R7000 vertical worked much better up 45 feet than
mounted 8 feet from the ground (as recommended by Cushcraft).

I would like to avoid traps and go with a STeppIR vertical. But only the
small StepppIR vertical can be mounted practically on a Tower.

If I want 40m and 30 m coverage, I need the BigIR and mount it near the
ground. (Possibly using my elevated deck as support and using the bottom of
the deck to support the radials).

Decisions.. Decisions.

Rob


Old Ed wrote:
Hi Rob -

You might talk to the SteppIR folks about using one of their DIPOLES
on your tower. It could probably be mounted vertically if you were
so inclined.

If I were going to try that, I would try it first without a balun,
and make sure
the dipole leg adjacent to the tower was connected to the shield side.
But you could be assured that the dipole would work killer in the
conventional
horizontal orientation, IF the airspace it occupies isn't a problem
for you.

Have fun es 73, Ed

"Rob" wrote in message
. ..
I am now in the market for a new vertical after my old R7000 was hit
by lightning.

My old R7000 was mounted on a 45 foot Tower. (At this height, the
antenna worked great!)

I am considering purchasing a SmallIR vertical (from
www.steppir.com) and mounting it on this 45 foot tower with radials
dropping downward from the tower. I won't be able to easily guy the
vertical but it would appear that it is pretty strong with a 80 MPH
wind survival rating without radials.

Is it a good idea to install the SmallIR on top of a 45 foot Tower?
Has anyone successfully used the SmallIR vertical mounted on a 45
foot Tower?

I am also considering purchasing the BigIR vertical. But if its
guying requirements, I won't be able to mount it on the Tower.
Instead, I am thinking of using my elevated deck as a support. My
Back wooden deck is about 9 foot off the ground with a 4 foot fence
and some posts about 7 feet tall. I am thinking of mounting the
antenna feed point about 8 to 9 feet off the ground and use the
bottom of the deck to install radials. I will use the post to
provide additional support instead of using guy wires.

Will this work? (I realise I will have to fiddle with the length
of the radials)

73's
Rob
Quebec

JGBOYLES wrote:

Rob, You must enjoy spending money on antennas:-) If you can get an
inverted vee up 45' at apex, and feed it with ladder line and a
tuner, then you have something that will exceed what you are
proposing. A 50-65' per leg vee will get you on 80M-10M, and
possibly 160M.

I suspect you can get near the same performance with an inverted vee. But
the vertical will likely have a better DX angle and will be a little more
omnidirectional. Also it will be faster to switch bands with an R8 or
SteppIR. No need to fiddle with a tuner.

Well I have insurance. The Insurance company will pay for the new antenna
and installation. But I need to supply them with an invoice showing the
purchase of a new antenna. (It doesn't need to be a vertical but the
insurance will only pay for the equivalent replacement cost of a R7000
vertical. I could go for a more expensive yagi but a I would also need to
buy a real Tower).

Rob

"Rob" wrote in message ...
I am now in the market for a new vertical after my old R7000 was hit by
lightning.

My old R7000 was mounted on a 45 foot Tower. (At this height, the antenna
worked great!)

I am considering purchasing a SmallIR vertical (from www.steppir.com) and
mounting it on this 45 foot tower with radials dropping downward from the
tower. I won't be able to easily guy the vertical but it would appear that
it is pretty strong with a 80 MPH wind survival rating without radials.

Is it a good idea to install the SmallIR on top of a 45 foot Tower?
Has anyone successfully used the SmallIR vertical mounted on a 45 foot
Tower?

I am also considering purchasing the BigIR vertical. But if its guying
requirements, I won't be able to mount it on the Tower. Instead, I am
thinking of using my elevated deck as a support. My Back wooden deck is
about 9 foot off the ground with a 4 foot fence and some posts about 7 feet
tall. I am thinking of mounting the antenna feed point about 8 to 9 feet
off the ground and use the bottom of the deck to install radials. I will
use the post to provide additional support instead of using guy wires.

Will this work? (I realise I will have to fiddle with the length of the
radials)

73's
Rob
Quebec

It will work, but I'd rather have an antenna on the tower at 45 ft any
day. I think if I had to choose between a smaller antenna higher, or a
longer one lower, I'd usually prefer the higher smaller antenna. But
of course will depend on the number of radials you have at the lower
level. I don't know what bands you prefer, but take 40m...At 8-9 ft,
you would probably need at least 60 radials to equal the level of
performance of just 4 radials at 45 ft. MK