i live in a neighborhood where the sight of a half-wave dipole would
cause a riot. however, a portion of my property is heavily wooded.
i could easily hide even a 160m half-wave among the branches and leaves,
leaving it invisible. is this practical? risky? caveat: i'm still
studying for my technician's license so go easy on me :-).

/mark

I live in the forest, and use a couple of resonant dipoles hiding in the
trees. I have no problems at all. Once, during our ice storm, one of them
came down when a tree broke off and fell. SWR is fine, and get good signal
reports.

Go for it.


--
Mike-K5VSE
Formerly WB6VSE, Senior Tech, Amateur Division, SBE/Linear Systems
Watsonville, CA
All out going Email, scanned with Norton Anti-Virus 2004
"Radios That Glow in the Dark"
"3922 khz".

K5VSE wrote:
I live in the forest, and use a couple of resonant dipoles hiding in the
trees. I have no problems at all. Once, during our ice storm, one of them
came down when a tree broke off and fell. SWR is fine, and get good signal
reports.

Go for it.


Only caviet-- You need at least a general for 30 MHz, or below, but
the absorbsion of rf at those freqs is minimal, tho the HEIGHT, at lower freqs
for a good pattern (for long distance) might be a problem. But , say on 80-40
even at around 20 foot elevation, can work reliably several hundred miles!
20 and up meters shouldn't present much of a problem, and at 6 and 2 meters yagi
be best bet, but relatively small size. Have fun- Jim NN7K

K5VSE wrote:
I live in the forest, and use a couple of resonant dipoles hiding in the
trees. I have no problems at all. Once, during our ice storm, one of them
came down when a tree broke off and fell.

Please allow me to apologize in advance, but I can't resist asking:

"If a dipole falls in a forest and there's no one there to hear it,
does it make a sound?"

73,

John NU3E :-)

That depends upon whether it is a pole (tree) that is dying.

"John DeGood" wrote in message
...
K5VSE wrote:
I live in the forest, and use a couple of resonant dipoles hiding in the
trees. I have no problems at all. Once, during our ice storm, one of
them
came down when a tree broke off and fell.

Please allow me to apologize in advance, but I can't resist asking:

"If a dipole falls in a forest and there's no one there to hear it,
does it make a sound?"

73,

John NU3E :-)

"If a dipole falls in a forest and there's no one there to hear it,
does it make a sound?"

===============================

Yes. All falling trees make a sound. But if there's nobody to hear it who
cares?

But this business about 100 watt transmitters causing forest fires is
exaggerated. Even if there's a conjugal impedance match between a dead leaf
and the transmitter there's little to worry about even when its not raining.
And the density of foliage is hardly likely to allow flames, should they
occur, to leap from one leaf to another.

The climate and type of tree involved is, of course, of some consequence.
Deciduous trees and those found in South American and Indianesian jungles
can be disregarded from this discussion,

If you should live in Australia, the home of Eucaliptus trees, during the
dry season, and it's always dry, there is a one in 100 million chance of a
tree catching fire by radio. Always supposing by some remote chance it
hasn't first been struck by lightning.

Eucaliptus trees positively enjoy fire. They depend on it to propagate
efficiently. This may be an unfortunate trait insofar as kangaroos and
wallabies are concerned but alligators are quite happy with the way things
have been arranged. The Aussies themselves take care not to build their
houses too near to eucaliptus plantations. The Abbo's, with their 50,000
years of experience, radio or not, are quite happy and sensible enough to
leave things as they are.

The USA has wide variations in climate and tree population. Thoughtful
citizens ought to concentrate their minds on hurricanes, twisters,
atmospheric pollution and gun laws. 100-watt transmitters and G5RV's can
look after themselves. ;o)
---
Reg.

"Reg Edwards" wrote

The USA has wide variations in climate and tree population. Thoughtful
citizens ought to concentrate their minds on hurricanes, twisters,
atmospheric pollution and gun laws. 100-watt transmitters and G5RV's can
look after themselves. ;o)
---
Reg.

I assure you we are concentrating very carfefully, Reg! Last week we had
about 20,000 gun laws on the books, counting all federal and state laws.
This weekend we have one less federal gun law, and soon there may be less.
When free people use their minds instead of letting foolish emotions be
their guide, the concept of restricting firearms from law abiding citizens
is one of the first things to go.

Btw, so far my dipole hasn't set the pine trees on fire, or been torn down
by a hurricane, despite three attempts by them so far this year ;-)

73,

Jack

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 15:01:15 -0400, "Jack Painter"
wrote:

When free people use their minds instead of letting foolish emotions be
their guide, the concept of restricting firearms from law abiding citizens
is one of the first things to go.

Hi Jack,

The D.C. sniper (a known non-law abider) got his firearm from non-law
abiding citizens out the back door of a local gun-shop here. Foolish
emotions had nothing to do with their inability to account for several
hundred missing guns they just shrugged off as bookkeeping
discrepancies. Clearly they had more guns than necessary to stay
profitable. Imagine how long your supermarket would stay in business
at that kind of employee pilfering rate.

Now, if we bring the foolish emotion issue into it, then Mr. John
Allen Muhammad, clearly an emotional person, could now simply walk up
to the counter and get more bang for his buck. And if denied, I
suppose he would have had to pay more at the back door.

James D. Martin,
James Buchanan,
Kumar Walekar,
Sarah Ramos,
Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera,
Pascal Charlot,
Woman shot, wounded,
13-year-old boy wounded,
Dean Harold Myers,
Kenneth H. Bridges,
Linda Franklin,
37-year-old man shot,
Conrad Johnson,
killed or wounded between October 2 and October 22.

Another foolish, emotional personality that appeared before committees
to argue that we retain the prohibition against assault rifles was
Reagan's Press Officer James Brady. One may say he is emotional
simply because he survived being shot (the alternative is being
un-emotionally dead).

Well, let's just mark it up to the dispassionate tenor of the
Republican Guard who have over the years jettisoned Reagan's mandates
as easily as they shrugged off the prohibition against assault
weapons. The Republican Guard has even offered laws to reduce the
liability of the local gun shop and emotional others like them that
whine they are too hard pressed by rational laws to balance their
books or lock their back doors. The example of the Russian school
debacle where the collapse of rational law has seen plenty of assault
weapons were available makes the Columbine massacre seem like a
Saturday afternoon picnic.

"In countries like the Untied States, it's
perfectly legal for members of the public
to own certain types of firearms. If you live
in such a country obtain an assault rifle
legally, preferably an AK-47 or variations"
-- Al Qaeda training manual
the Ossama seal of approval to our nation's administration

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 15:01:15 -0400, "Jack Painter"
wrote:


"Reg Edwards" wrote

The USA has wide variations in climate and tree population. Thoughtful
citizens ought to concentrate their minds on hurricanes, twisters,
atmospheric pollution and gun laws. 100-watt transmitters and G5RV's can
look after themselves. ;o)
---
Reg.

I assure you we are concentrating very carfefully, Reg! Last week we had
about 20,000 gun laws on the books, counting all federal and state laws.
This weekend we have one less federal gun law, and soon there may be less.
When free people use their minds instead of letting foolish emotions be
their guide, the concept of restricting firearms from law abiding citizens
is one of the first things to go.

Jack, please explain why we need battlefield weapons in a civilian
society.

How many times do you need to shoot that beautiful deer before you
drag it to the sausage maker?

bob
k5qwg



Btw, so far my dipole hasn't set the pine trees on fire, or been torn down
by a hurricane, despite three attempts by them so far this year ;-)

73,

Jack

I assure you we are concentrating very carfefully, Reg! Last week we had
about 20,000 gun laws on the books, counting all federal and state laws.
This weekend we have one less federal gun law, and soon there may be less.
When free people use their minds instead of letting foolish emotions be
their guide, the concept of restricting firearms from law abiding citizens
is one of the first things to go.


Gun control is using both hands.

In any event, if the trees are at all flammable, best use some
non conducting rope (that won't absorb moisture when it rains)
to support the ends of the antenna away from the tree limbs.
The antenna would work better without those lossy tree trunks
right next to the ends anyway.