On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 17:34:13 -0600, James Douglas
wrote:

James Douglas wrote:
As my existing fence is falling down and I have saved the 3K to replace
it it's also time for a new antenna. What type of wire would be best?
My existing antenna is around the fence about 8' in the area and the
area is shaped like [ with the long side running North/South.


I ended up getting 500' of #14 stranded copper, with 15mils insulation
for $28.00, they wanted $32.00 for 200' taken from the large spool? WTF?

Now I may extend the antenna to include a piece that runs across the top
of the roof, which on my house is about 30' up in the air! Would that be
good or bad, again I have 150' around the fence that runs in the shape
of a C, what if I added a "extender" across the roof vent and ran a wire
down the to main antenna? I have heard that "higher is better"

You might run the extension, and clip it to your regular fence antenna
with an alligator clip -- have someone attach and unattach it out in
the yard while you listen to signals. That way, you can see if it
improves reception or not.

I am also thinking about adding a two foot extension to the fence posts
so that I can get the antenna up a little higher but am wondering what
the neighbors are going to think?

Just tell them you wanted a higher fence :-)

Bob
k5qwg



I do have a balun from Erickson Enginering, which seems to help so far
although conditions have not been favorable here lately, and also have
8' copper rod pounded into the ground.