Many thanks to all who commented on my initial "antenna philosophy" article.

Looks as though the time is coming when my antenna no longer will be
philosophical but will be REAL. After some tribulations, we signed a
contract to purchase a lot on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (where we are now
living in an apartment). We are now wrestling with a floor plan and should
break ground in mid-April.

The lot is covered with 70-foot-plus pine trees, all of which will be
cleared -- you don't want them anywhere near the house because they tend to
fall over in hurricanes. However, along the back edge of the lot are three
slender oak trees -- 40 to 50 feet tall -- and before I could say anything,
my XYL announced that we had to keep the oak trees so I could hang
antennas!!!

The two most distant oak trees are 85 feet apart so now I'll need to sort
out a multi-band dipole with 85 feet of horizontal -- guess I could use 135
feet and hang 25 feet vertically or sloping off each end.

Stay tuned.

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Joe S.