HF Antenna Options on Newer Home

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michy

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I'm trying to determine what the options may be for an amateur radio antenna and HF. Where we are located, there are hills that may interfere, and maybe to the point of it not making it feasible in certain directions.

Also the lots where we are located are not very big (4100 sq ft), so while we wish we had a big yard, or acreage, anyone in the BC lower mainland knows that means lots of $$$$$$ :)

Our worry is that because we're on the lower side of a hill to the east and also south east, it may cause some issues.

I'm wondering what some of the seasoned amateur radio hobbyists would do, if they were in our house and wanted to do HF (Dxing).

Here are some pictures we took off google maps to give an idea of the terrain.

Exposure North

Exposure South

Exposure West

Exposure East
 

mmckenna

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Dipole, G5RV, etc would all work fine. No reason those mountains will interfere with anything. I've got friends and family that live up that way, although none of them are into radio, I have spent much time up there.

One of the government agencies had, or used to have, a large antenna farm south of Vancouver that was for HF. Seemed like it was geared for marine HF stuff.

You won't get huge antenna farm performance out of a small lot antenna setup, but there are a lot of amateurs running HF on smaller footprints than that. You'll need to be creative, but there's lot of help out there. There used to be an ARRL book calls "Low Profile Radio" many years back that had some good small lot solutions.

I used to work with a guy that had a single wide mobile home on a lot just big enough for the trailer and a car port. He had a full HF setup, vertical, loop, etc. and worked all over the world.
Of course he retired a year or so ago and moved up into the mountains on 20 acres and just put up a 100 foot tower, but he did just fine on the mobile home lot.
 

zz0468

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I'd suggest a balanced antenna such as a dipole, squeezed into the lot whatever way you can, and fed with ladder line and a tuner. The ends can even be bent to squeeze into the lot. Length is not critical, so long as it's balanced.

It gives you multi-band capability, and is not dependent on a low impedance RF ground for it's performance. It can be done with a relatively low profile.

The drawback is the price and operating complexity (minor) of a tuner. It's got to be a real balanced line tuner, one of those LDG things won't cut it. An SGC autotuner will.

The advantage is it will work quite well.
 

michy

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Thanks for the replies.

The roof peaks of the two and three rows of houses east ( Exposure East - Hill ) are probably 10 or 20 feet taller which could be near 45 degrees.

You can see the elevation differences a bit more in the south exposure picture ( Exposure South- Hill ).

I think we could go 10' or so max off the peak of the our roof, and anything more could have the homes behind me complaining. :(

The roof is T shaped with four peaks and about 36ft peak to peak.

If I understand dipoles. they'd need to be above "structures" as high as possible to get reflections off the ground?
 
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ka3jjz

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A sloper might be something to look at. Alpha Delta has (had?) them for many years....Mike
 

vagrant

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K4KIO Hexagonal beam - Up to six bands - KIO Technology
There are various versions of this antenna type out there.

There's also an OCF inverted V option. A 40-6m antenna is about 44' on one side and 22' on the other.
 

michy

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We put up a few masts/antenna's to test out the neighbourhood. We didn't want to go up too high yet or too far. No one has reacted so far.

Ant 1

Ant 2

Ant 3

We'll give it a month or so now before adding any thing else.
 

wb6uqa

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Home Antenna

I have a six-band Hex Beam that works well. It has 11.5-foot turning radius. Also, a Cobra 73 foot inverted V. The Cobra is used by the Military. It is 10-80 meters. 73 Ft. total length ,36.5 ft per leg.
 

prcguy

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I researched all the hex beams, saw and touched many of them at Dayton and went with the 6 band 20 through 6m version from NA4RR. They all seem to use the same basic dimensions and have the same shape. What you are paying for is the hub design, the quality of wire/insulating rope and the design of the collective feed thingee. You also pay for the ease of assembly and factory tuning.

NA4RR offers the best quality components and ease of assy in my opinion for $570 shipped to your door. The K4KIO is also very good but when you order the 6 band version it will cost a bit more than the NA4RR. Both of these a super easy to assemble and you can call them plug and play. Many other brands cost much more and some you have to measure out wire and rope lengths, then hope and pray it resonates where its supposed too, which it doesn't in many cases.

When my NA4RR arrived I took out the fiberglass spreaders and gave them a few coats of paint. When dry I unpacked everything else and it was completely assembled in my driveway in 45min flat. Once on the tower its SWR was perfectly centered in the middle of each band and it covers each band in its entirety with no tuner needed. 10M covers 28.0 to the high end of 28MHz for CW and SSB phone but the FM portion of the band has a higher SWR, but I didn't buy it for the FM band.

I can't think of any antenna I've ever purchased that went together so easily and made me as happy as the NA4RR hex beam. On 17 and 20m its constantly 2 S units better than my 80m OCFD and when 10m is open it completely kicks butt over the wire antenna.
Did I mention how happy I am with the NA4RR hex beam?
Happy happy happy.
prcguy


Which hex beam do you have? What vendor? I'm considering one for my own small lot.
 

michy

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I like the NA4RR.

Physically it looks like its pointing up to space :) That would give any paranoid neighbours around it more comfort by thinking it isn't sending a beam through their kitchen :)
 

ka9ucn

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For low band work. You could have room for an 80 meter loop. Fed with ladder line or use DC relays work on the higher bands with lobes determining gain or lack of.
 

michy

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Grounding is our next challenge. Actually two challenges..

1) Keeping the distance between the coax feed lines and the grounding to at least 2m/6ft.

2) Bonding (#6) between the mast/antenna grounding to the electrical system ground since the "ground plate" next to the panel is the exact opposite side of the house. We want to avoid going inside the house, but I'm curious how many have done that, and if you want that "bond" to carry voltage/current through your basement, or should we run the cable along the outside of the house (with many more bends). I assume bends are "as" critical for bonding, than the connection to the ground rods themselves.

3) Pounding the 10' ground rods down next to the house without hitting the weeping tile that runs around the house along the base of the concrete foundation.

We had installed a tv antenna a few years ago with its own ground rod, and figure this is the time to bond all this stuff together.


In the end, we'll have a grounding system with:

1) a 10ft ground rod with a #6 ground to the tv antenna (at one peak of the house)

*bonded to (#6)*

2) a 10ft ground rod next to the 12x12x6 PVC JB with a ground to the lightning arrestors in it for all coax feed lines that enter the house.

*bonded to (#6)

3) a 10ft ground rod with a ground to the antenna structure/masts - about 25 feet from the PVC JB,) To keep the min 6ft clearance, the grounding of the masts has to go down the right side from the antennas to route down to the ground (and ground rod).

*bonded to (#6)

4) the exisiting grounding plate next to the electrical panel (electrical system ground) using a #6 ground wire, most likely in PVC pipe along the side of the house. (this one will be longer (80ft or so), and have more bends).
 
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