Giant Cu Cactus antenna
 

Neighborhood covenant was recently ammended to allow vertical antennas and
to exclude beam antennas other than TV antennas and smaller. Fortunately for
me my tribander was already grandfathered in, I lived here before it was a
neighborhood.. I want to make the best of a Rhon 25 tower I have stored
away. My tower is 50ft tall and could be extented even taller using vertical
elements that did not support a load other than themselves. I was thinking
of tuning the tower into a Giant copper Cactus antenna for 20M thru UHF by
fastening 1/4 wl stubs on the side of the tower. Any reason why this would
not work.

Jimmie wrote:
Neighborhood covenant was recently ammended to allow vertical antennas and
to exclude beam antennas other than TV antennas and smaller. Fortunately for
me my tribander was already grandfathered in, I lived here before it was a
neighborhood.. I want to make the best of a Rhon 25 tower I have stored
away. My tower is 50ft tall and could be extented even taller using vertical
elements that did not support a load other than themselves. I was thinking
of tuning the tower into a Giant copper Cactus antenna for 20M thru UHF by
fastening 1/4 wl stubs on the side of the tower. Any reason why this would
not work.


Hi Jimmie,

the only problem i can forsee is that copper and Glavinized steep will
setup electrolisis which will corrode the connection. so you'll have to
treat for that problem.. other than that should work ok.
73 Dave

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 19:18:09 +0000, Jimmie wrote:

Neighborhood covenant was recently ammended to allow vertical antennas and
to exclude beam antennas other than TV antennas and smaller. Fortunately for
me my tribander was already grandfathered in, I lived here before it was a
neighborhood.. I want to make the best of a Rhon 25 tower I have stored
away. My tower is 50ft tall and could be extented even taller using vertical
elements that did not support a load other than themselves. I was thinking
of tuning the tower into a Giant copper Cactus antenna for 20M thru UHF by
fastening 1/4 wl stubs on the side of the tower. Any reason why this would
not work.

That's essentially what the Hy-Gain AV18HT HyTower is- a 50' tower with
stubs to make it resonate on 80-10. They say with a loading coil at the
feed it also does well on 160. You should be on the right track here,
though I'd likely do separate verticals for 6m, 2m and UHF. There was a
dandy 2m/440 collinear vertical in QST last fall that's working fine for
me, and I've had good results with a copper pipe 6m J-pole in the past.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce H. McIntosh www.afn.org/~scotsman WA4UF
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network geek with a strong affinity for Telecasters

"Bruce H. McIntosh" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 19:18:09 +0000, Jimmie wrote:

Neighborhood covenant was recently ammended to allow vertical antennas
and
to exclude beam antennas other than TV antennas and smaller. Fortunately
for
me my tribander was already grandfathered in, I lived here before it was
a
neighborhood.. I want to make the best of a Rhon 25 tower I have stored
away. My tower is 50ft tall and could be extented even taller using
vertical
elements that did not support a load other than themselves. I was
thinking
of tuning the tower into a Giant copper Cactus antenna for 20M thru UHF
by
fastening 1/4 wl stubs on the side of the tower. Any reason why this
would
not work.

That's essentially what the Hy-Gain AV18HT HyTower is- a 50' tower with
stubs to make it resonate on 80-10. They say with a loading coil at the
feed it also does well on 160. You should be on the right track here,
though I'd likely do separate verticals for 6m, 2m and UHF. There was a
dandy 2m/440 collinear vertical in QST last fall that's working fine for
me, and I've had good results with a copper pipe 6m J-pole in the past.

I believe that antenna behaves more like a 1/4 wl antena and the stubs act
as traps

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce H. McIntosh www.afn.org/~scotsman WA4UF
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network geek with a strong affinity for Telecasters